appears, where you sign in with your Microsoft account. Finish by giving Cortana access to your information, which allows Cortana to check your calendar, contacts, location, and search history. Armed with that information, Cortana can manage your appointments as it assists with your life.
As digital butlers go, Cortana lacks references from past employers, leading to a trust issue. Some people feel comfortable with robots managing parts of their lives, and others, understandably, are less comfortable with the thought.
Since Microsoft hid Cortana in Windows 11, the digital assistant will probably be phased out of Windows soon. Don’t become too attached.
Seeing the Action Center and Notifications
Nestled along the Notifications pane’s bottom edge lived a list of icons that toggled handy settings. One quick click could quickly put your laptop into Airplane mode, for example; a click on the Night Light toggle dimmed your laptop’s screen for working in poorly lit areas, saving your eyes from screen glare.
Windows 11 dumped the Action Center icon, preferring to split its job into two separate sections, as described in the following sections.
Viewing notifications
In Windows 11, a click on the taskbar’s time and date area fetches not only a calendar, but a list of notifications above it, as shown in Figure 3-8. If no notifications await, you simply see the calendar, with nothing listed above it.
FIGURE 3-8: Click the time and date area to see the Notifications pane, which displays current information about both your life and your computer.
Notifications may list information about your latest emails, for example, as well as times of upcoming appointments, news headlines, virus scan results, and other informational tidbits.
They first appear as a flash in the lower-left corner of your screen, hoping your eyes will dart to it and absorb it. Then they disappear, piling up in the Notifications pane.
Notifications can be dealt with in a variety of ways:
Ignore them. You needn’t even look at the Notifications pane. The notifications will simply pile up unread, with no damage done. Unless it’s a reminder for a forgotten-but-upcoming appointment, a notification usually is more informational than urgent.
Clear them all. If you grow weary of seeing a pile of notifications, click the Clear All button in the Notifications pane’s upper-right corner. Whoosh, gone!
Close any single notification by clicking the X in its upper-right corner.
Stop seeing a particularly nagging notification by clicking the three dots next to the X in the notification’s upper-right corner. When the drop-down menu appears, select Turn Off All Notifications from that app or program.
To choose which apps can bug you with notifications, click the three dots next to the X in any notification’s upper-right corner. When the drop-down menu appears, click Go To Notification Settings. There, toggle switches let you choose which apps can and can’t disturb you with their latest news.
Seeing Quick Settings icons
Shown earlier in Figure 3-7, these icons appear most often, although Windows 11 lets you customize them to meet your own needs:
Network or WiFi: This displays information about your current network connections, including the internet.
Bluetooth: When turned on, this lets your PC communicate with other Bluetooth devices within range (about 30 feet). Common Bluetooth gadgetry includes speakers, smartphones, and smartwatches. I cover Bluetooth in Chapter 12.
Location: This lets you toggle your computer’s knowledge of your geographic location, handy when looking at apps with maps or weather reports.
All Settings: A click here fetches the Windows 11 Settings app, a huge panel of organized switches, which replaces Control Panel found in older Windows versions. (You can also reach the Settings app by clicking the Start button and clicking the Settings icon.)
The available icons vary according to your model of computer or tablet.
Add; a pop-up list offers other icons you can add with a click on their name.
Watching Widgets
FIGURE 3-9: Click the taskbar’s Widgets icon, and the Widgets panel appears.
The Widgets fill themselves automatically with information gathered from the internet, and there’s not much you can do with them. Here are a few tricks, though, to make the Widgets match your interests:
A click on the Add Widgets button lets you customize the panel with even more informational boxes: upcoming appointments, for example, current traffic information, or a to-do list.
To
