Changes for Security Notification Customization in Windows 10

Prior to Windows 10, to better manage the types of notifications and the number of notifications a user would see for security services in Windows, administrators could modify a registry key either manually or through Group Policy.

The registry key, located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE MicrosoftSecurity Center, allowed administrators to turn on or off notifications for AntiVirus, Firewall, and general Updates to the operating system.

With Windows 10 rolled out, some companies have noticed that this setting no longer works and that even when disabled, AntiVirus, Firewall and Updates still show up as notifications in the Windows 10 Action Center. For Windows 10, this setting has been disabled. The explanation is that the registry key values contained in this registry path were found to be vulnerable to malware. Malware writers would regularly change these values to hide the hidden software.

For those still running Windows version earlier than Windows 10, changing the registry key still works with the following settings and values.