Quick Settings (23H2) (Archived)

Quick settings is a new Windows 11 feature that appears when you select the Network, Volume, or Power buttons in the Taskbar’s system tray. As its name suggests, Quick settings provides quick access to commonly needed system settings like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, Battery saver, and more.

You can also open Quick settings by typing WINKEY + A.

Quick settings displays a grid of quick setting buttons, brightness and volume sliders, a battery life display, and buttons to edit which quick settings buttons appear and access the full Settings app.

Where did it go?

If you are familiar with Windows 10, you may recognize Quick settings as the replacement for the quick actions area of the Action Center interface from that release. Windows 11 no longer includes an Action Center. Instead, its functionality is split between the Notification pane–which can be accessed by selecting the time/date display in the system tray–and Quick settings.

Quickly access commonly needed system settings

Using the grid of quick settings buttons at the top of Quick settings, you can easily access certain commonly needed system settings.

Quick settings displays six quick settings buttons by default. But you can remove any you don’t need and add additional quick settings if desired. This is described later in the chapter.

Quickly find and connect to a Wi-Fi network

The “Wi-Fi” quick setting is used to toggle Wi-Fi on or off and to manage available Wi-Fi networks. When you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, the name of that network will appear below the “Wi-Fi” quick setting button.

A> If Wi-Fi is disabled, the button will be titled “Wi-Fi.” And if Wi-Fi is enabled but you are not connected to a network, it will be titled “Available.”

The “Wi-Fi” quick setting is a split button, a special type of button that has two sides, each of which works like a unique button of its own. You can select the left side of this button to toggle Wi-Fi on and off. Or you can click the right side to see which Wi-Fi networks are available, connect to one, or disconnect from or forget the currently-used Wi-Fi network.

To access more Wi-Fi settings, open Quick settings, select the right side of the Wi-Fi quick setting button, and then select “More Wi-Fi settings.”

You can learn more about Wi-Fi in Windows 11 in the Wi-Fi chapter.

Quickly find and connect to a Bluetooth device

The “Bluetooth” quick setting button is used to toggle Bluetooth on or off and to manage available Bluetooth devices. When you are connected to a Bluetooth device, the name of that device will appear below the “Bluetooth” quick setting button.

If Bluetooth is disabled, the button will be titled “Bluetooth.” And if Bluetooth is enabled but you are not connected to a device, it will be titled “Not connected.”

As with the “Wi-Fi” quick setting button, “Bluetooth” quick setting is a split button, a special type of button that has two sides, each of which works like a unique button of its own. You can select the left side of this button to toggle Bluetooth on and off. Or you can click the right side to see which Bluetooth devices are paired and which are available (ready to pair).

You can pair your PC with a Bluetooth device by selecting it in the list under “Not paired.” What you can’t do here is remove a paired device. To do that, you will need to open the Settings app: Open Quick settings, select the right side of the Bluetooth quick setting button, and then select “More Bluetooth settings.”

You can learn more about Bluetooth in Windows 11 in the Bluetooth chapter.

Quickly connect to a cellular data network

If your PC includes a cellular modem, you can access the Internet using a cellular data connection provided by a mobile operator. You can access this connection with the “Cellular” quick setting button in Quick settings, which only appears if your PC has this capability. It displays the name of the cellular network to which you are connected.

As with the “Wi-Fi” and “Bluetooth” quick setting buttons, the “Cellular” quick setting button is a split button, a special type of button that has two sides, each of which works like a unique button of its own. You can select the left side of this button to toggle cellular connectivity on and off. Or you can click the right side to access a few options related to this unique type of connection.

You can learn more about cellular data connectivity in the Cellular Data chapter.

Quickly toggle Airplane mode

The “Airplane mode” quick setting button acts as a toggle: When enabled, it will disable any wireless radios in your PC, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and, if available, cellular broadband.

While in Airplane mode, you can individually enable any or all of the wireless radios in your PC. For example, you may still wish to use Bluetooth headphones while in Airplane mode. And new to Windows 11, Airplane mode will remember that configuration, so the next time you enable Airplane mode, it will leave whichever wireless radios you previously used in Airplane mode enabled going forward.

You don’t have to configure this per se: Simply enable whichever wireless radios you want to use while in Airplane mode.

You can explicitly configure this feature if you’d like. You can learn how in the Airplane Mode chapter.

Quickly toggle Battery saver

The “Battery saver” quick setting button acts as a toggle: When enabled, it turns on Battery saver, a Windows 11 feature that limits background activities and notifications and dims the screen to extend your portable PC’s battery life.

When enabled, the Battery icon in the system tray and the battery display in the lower left corner of Quick settings will both change to include the leaf overlay that indicates that the PC is in Battery saver mode.

Battery saver is configured to turn on automatically when the PC’s battery life reaches 20 percent. To configure this feature’s behavior, open Quick settings, right-click the “Battery saver” quick settings button, and choose “Go to Settings.” The Settings app will open with Power & battery settings displayed and the Battery saver’s “Turn on now” button selected.

You can also just open Settings (WINKEY + I) and navigate to System > Power & battery.

Quickly toggle Night light

The “Night light” quick setting button acts as a toggle: When enabled, it turns on Night light, a Windows 11 feature that reduces the amount of cold blue light emitted by your PC’s display while amping up the warmer colors, a change that will allegedly help you sleep better after using the PC at night.

Night light is useful enough that you should configure it to turn on automatically every night. We explain how in the Customize the Display chapter.

Quickly toggle some of Windows 11’s accessibility features

The “Accessibility” quick setting button is used to display the Accessibility pane, which lets you quickly toggle several key accessibility features–Magnifier, Color filters, Narrator, Mono audio, and Sticky keys–on and off.

You can also quickly access Accessibility settings from this interface, which lets you configure any of Windows 11’s many accessibility features. To do so, open Quick settings, right-click the “Accessibility” quick settings button, and choose “Go to Settings.” The Settings app will open with Accessibility settings displayed.

Alternatively, open the Accessibility pane and select “More Accessibility settings.” Or, open Settings (WINKEY + I) and navigate to Accessibility.

Quickly cast to a wireless display

The “Cast” quick setting button is used to display the Cast pane, which lets you connect to an available wireless display–including many modern smart TVs–using a Wi-Fi-based technology called Miracast.

To view available wireless displays, open Quick settings and select the “Cast” quick setting button. The Cast pane appears and searches for available displays.

You can display the Cast pane even more quickly by typing WINKEY + K.

To connect to a wireless display, select it in the list. To disconnect from a wireless display, open the Cast pane and select the Disconnect button.

You can learn more about wireless display configuration in the Displays chapter.

Quickly toggle your mobile hotspot

Windows 11 provides a mobile hotspot feature that lets you share your Wi-Fi connection with up to 8 other other devices. You can toggle the hotspot on and off using the “Mobile hotspot” quick setting button. When it’s enabled, Quick settings will display the name of your shared Wi-Fi network and how many devices are connected to it.

That said, you will want to configure Mobile hotspot first. You can learn how in the Mobile Hotspot chapter.

Quickly share something with Nearby share

Windows 11 provides a feature called Nearby share that lets you use File Explorer to share documents, photos, and other files with other Windows 10- and 11-based PCs. You can also use Microsoft Edge to share website addresses with other Windows 10- and 11-based PCs.

When you toggle the “Nearby share” quick setting button to On, two things happen: Nearby share is enabled and its scope is configured to “Everyone nearby.” Then, you can use File Explorer or Microsoft Edge to share with any available PCs on the local Wi-Fi network.

Nearby share isn’t enabled by default and it’s not all that easy to use because both PCs need to be configured to use it. We discuss this feature in more detail in the Nearby Share chapter.

Quickly access the Project pane

The “Project” quick setting button is used to display the Project pane, which lets you configure how Windows 11 uses an external (or secondary) display.

By default, Windows 11 configures external displays to duplicate the primary display when connected, but this is rarely ideal. You can use this pane to extend the desktop–to use both displays, each with its own desktop–or to use only one of the displays.

You can open the Project pane even more quickly by typing WINKEY + P.

You can learn more about external displays and the Project pane in the Displays chapter(#displays).

Quickly toggle your display’s rotation lock

If you have a tablet or convertible PC, you can use the “Rotation lock” quick settings button to prevent the display from rotating out of portrait mode if you rotate the PC in space. Curiously, this only works when the PC is in portrait mode. If it’s in the more typical landscape mode, Rotation lock is unavailable.

You can also toggle this setting in Display settings, though, again, it is only available when the PC is in portrait mode. To do so, rotate your PC’s display to portrait mode, open Quick settings, right-click the “Rotation lock” quick settings button, and choose “Go to Settings.” The Settings app will open with Display settings displayed and the Rotation lock’s On/Off switch selected.

Or, open Settings (WINKEY + I) and navigate to System > Display > Rotation lock.

Quickly configure Windows Studio Effects

If your PC supports the Windows Studio Effects set of AI-based camera and audio enhancements, you can use the “Studio effects” quick setting button to configure these effects on the fly, even while you’re using Microsoft Teams or some other video or audio calling app.

You can also configure these features in the Settings app, though the video and audio effects are confusingly found in different places in that app.

You can learn more about this feature and its hardware requirements in the Windows Studio Effects chapter.

Quickly adjust your PC’s screen brightness

Quick settings includes a “Brightness” slider you can use to control the brightness of the display.

Many portable PCs include dedicated keys on the keyboard for increasing or decreasing screen brightness, and these keys are often easier and quicker to use.

The “Brightness” slider isn’t available on all PCs.

Quickly adjust your PC’s volume

Quick settings includes a “Volume” slider you can use to control the volume of the current sound output device (typically speakers or headphones).

Many portable PCs include dedicated keys on the keyboard for increasing or decreasing the volume, and these keys are often easier and quicker to use.

You can use the “Select a sound output” button to the right of the “Volume” slider to change the sound output device, access a Volume mixer, and, if available, toggle your PC’s spatial sound capabilities.

You can go directly to the “Sound output” pane by typing WINKEY + CTRL + V.

The Sound mixer is used to configure the relative volume of individual apps.

Configure the quick settings buttons

By default, Quick settings displays six quick settings buttons. But you can arbitrarily add additional quick settings buttons–which will expand the height of the pane–or remove any buttons you don’t need. You can also reposition buttons within the quick settings grid.

To get started, open Quick settings and click the “Edit quick settings” button (it resembles a pencil). Quick settings enters an edit mode in which each of the available quick settings buttons displays an “Unpin” overlay and a new “Add” option is available.

To add a new quick settings button, click “Add” and review the list of available choices. Then, select the button you would like to add.

To remove a quick settings button, click its Unpin overlay. And to reposition a quick settings button, select it in edit mode and drag it to a new location.

Open Settings

As you might expect, Quick settings also provides a way to open the Settings app. Just select the “All settings” button–it looks like a gear–in the lower right of the pane.

You can open Settings even more quickly by typing WINKEY + I at any time.

Directly access the Network, Volume, or Power settings

The “Network,” “Volume,” and “Power” icons in the system tray are unique in Windows 11 because they act like a single icon that opens Quick settings when you select any of them. But these icons behave more typically when you right-click them. That is, each displays a small context menu that is relevant only to the icon you right-clicked.