How to Enable or Disable Notification Badges on the Windows 11 Taskbar

When you keep communication applications—such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Slack, WhatsApp, or Discord—pinned to your Windows 11 taskbar, the operating system overlays small circular badges onto their icons. These notification badges display numbers or subtle dots to alert you that unread direct messages, channel mentions, or calendar invites await your attention.

While notification badges ensure you never miss urgent customer requests or team pings, they can also act as persistent psychological triggers, constantly drawing your eyes away from deep work, coding, writing, or data analysis. Windows 11 provides a system-wide toggle that allows you to turn taskbar notification badges on or off to match your preferred productivity rhythm. This guide explains how to configure taskbar badges.

How Windows 11 Taskbar Badges Function

Taskbar badges operate through the Windows Push Notification Service (WNS):

• Count Indicators: Applications report unread counts, displaying small circular numbers (such as a red circle with “3”) in the bottom-right corner of the taskbar tile.
• Presence Indicators: Some apps display status indicators (such as green available or yellow away dots).
• Centred or Left-Aligned: Badges function identically whether your Windows 11 taskbar icons are centered or aligned to the traditional left corner.

Enabling or Disabling Badges in Windows 11 Settings

You can toggle badge visibility with a few clicks:

1. Press Windows + I on your keyboard to open the Settings app.
2. In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on Personalisation.
3. Scroll down the right pane and click on Taskbar.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the Taskbar page and click on Taskbar behaviours to expand the advanced settings list.
5. Locate the setting labelled Show badges on taskbar apps.
6. To Disable Badges: Uncheck the box. All numeric circles and unread dots will vanish from your pinned taskbar icons immediately.
7. To Enable Badges: Check the box to restore visible unread counts.

Disabling Taskbar Flashing for Background Apps

In addition to static badges, applications often flash orange on the taskbar to demand attention. To stop this aggressive behavior:

1. In the same Taskbar behaviours section within Settings, locate Show flashing on taskbar apps.
2. Uncheck the box next to this option.
3. Applications running in the background will no longer pulse orange when receiving background messages.

Managing Badges for Individual Apps

If you want to keep badges for essential work email but silence them for casual messaging apps:

1. Navigate to Settings > System > Notifications.
2. Scroll down to the Notifications from apps and other senders list.
3. Click on a specific app (e.g. Slack or WhatsApp).
4. You can customize whether that specific application can show banners or play sounds while leaving master taskbar badges active.