Find Out Which App Sent a Notification

**Win+N** shows what was missed, grouped by app. A toast that vanished is almost always still in the list, with the app's icon and name.

# press Win+N
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object * -ExcludeProperty PS*
Get-ChildItem 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object -First 10 PSChildName

The settings list uses the app's package family name or its executable path. Both are readable, and the path identifies a desktop app exactly.

Get-ChildItem 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings' | ForEach-Object { $v = Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPath; [pscustomobject]@{ App=$_.PSChildName; Enabled=$v.Enabled; ShowBanner=$v.ShowInActionCenter } } | Sort-Object App | Select-Object -First 15

The per-app page is the clean switch. It stops banners while keeping the entry in the notification centre if you still want the history.

Set-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App' -Name Enabled -Value 0 -Type DWord -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Start-Process ms-settings:notifications
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Enabled

Some notifications come from a helper process rather than the app. The process list and the start time of the helper explain a toast with no visible app.

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.MainWindowTitle -eq '' -and $_.StartTime -gt (Get-Date).AddMinutes(-10) } | Select-Object Name,Id,StartTime,Path | Sort-Object StartTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 10
Get-WinEvent -LogName 'Microsoft-Windows-PushNotification-Platform/Operational' -MaxEvents 10 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object TimeCreated,Id,Message | Select-Object -First 3

A small window near the clock can be an app's own popup, not a Windows notification. If it has a title bar and can be moved, it is a window.

Get-Process | Where-Object MainWindowTitle | Select-Object Name,MainWindowTitle,Id
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object * -ExcludeProperty PS*
Start-Process ms-settings:notifications

Priority notifications, quiet hours and per-app banner settings are three separate layers. Set the app to silent history only when the popup is the annoyance, not the information.

Set-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings' -Name NOC_GLOBAL_SETTING_TOASTS_ENABLED -Value 1 -Type DWord
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings' | Select-Object NOC_GLOBAL_SETTING_TOASTS_ENABLED,NOC_GLOBAL_SETTING_ALLOW_NOTIFICATION_SOUND
Get-Service WpnService | Select-Object Status,StartType