Soluții

How to Disable (or Enable) Windows 10’s Xbox Game Bar

Microsoft Xbox Logo on a Green Background

Microsoft’s Xbox Game Bar in Windows 10 is a handy way to call up an overlay of useful widgets using the Windows+G keyboard shortcut. But not everyone needs it, and if you’d like to disable it (or enable it again later), all it takes is a visit to Settings. Here’s how. First, open Windows Settings. To do so, open the Start menu and click the small “gear” icon, or press Windows+i on your keyboard.

In the Windows 10 Start Menu, click the "gear" icon to open Settings.

In Settings, click “Gaming.”

In Windows Settings, click "Gaming."

Under “Xbox Game Bar” settings, click the switch beneath “Enable Xbox Game Bar” until it is turned off. That will disable the Xbox Game Bar.

Click the "Enable Xbox Game Bar" switch.

After that, close settings. Try pressing Windows+G, and nothing will pop up. Even if you press the Xbox button on an Xbox controller, nothing will happen. Xbox Game Bar has been fully disabled. If you’d like to enable the Xbox Game Bar again, revisit the “Gaming” section in Windows Settings and flip the “Enable Xbox Game Bar” to the “On” position.

How to Disable the Xbox Button in Windows 10

By default, if you have an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller connected to your Windows 10 PC, pressing the Xbox button (the large circle in the center of the controller with an “x” on it) will bring up the Xbox Game Bar. If you’d like to disable this, visit Windows Settings > Gaming, then uncheck the box beside “Open Xbox Game Bar using this button on a controller.”

Uncheck this box to disable the Xbox button in Windows 10

Alternately, if you disable the Xbox Game Bar completely using the “Enable Xbox Game Bar” switch, then the Xbox button on your controller will no longer call up the Game Bar. But that also disables calling up the Game Bar using other methods (such as the Windows+G shortcut).

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How to Stop Low Cardio Fitness Notifications on Apple Watch

How to Turn off the Notifications the Easy Way

Confusingly, while you set up Low Cardio Fitness notifications in the Health app, that isn’t where you turn them off. Instead, to disable the alerts, open the “Watch” app on your iPhone and go to “Heart.” Toggle “Cardio Fitness Notifications” off from here.

watch app with heart option highlighted cardio fitness notifications toggle

How to Stop Low Cardio Fitness Alerts the Hard Way

While turning off Low Cardio Fitness notifications is one way to stop seeing them, there’s a better way: increase your cardio fitness. Higher levels of physical fitness have been linked with lower risks of getting heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and some cancers. Just look at this list from the American Heart Association.

Also, it’s important to remember that your cardio fitness is measured against other people of your age and sex. If you’re in your 60s, your level of fitness is naturally going to be lower than it was when you were in your 20s. Apple doesn’t somehow expect everyone to stack up against a field of elite athletes.

Note: Before starting any new exercise program, make sure that you talk to your personal physician. We’re not doctors here at How-To Geek, and we aren’t qualified to give you nuanced and specific health advice.

Increasing your cardio fitness takes time and, yes, exercise. If you’re just starting out, try increasing the number of steps that you take per day, or even do a couch to 5k program. After a few weeks, you’ll be able to see your cardio fitness number climb in the Health app. To check your cardio fitness, open the “Health” app, tap “Browse,” tap “Heart,” then tap “Cardio Fitness.”

heart option in health app cardio fitness option in health app

Move more and you should see the trend-line start to go up over the next days, weeks, and months. You can also tap the “i” icon to see the different ranges for all demographics.

trend line low fitness average values for different demographics

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Why Can’t I See the Burn Bar on My Apple Fitness+ Workouts?

What the Burn Bar Shows

First, let’s quickly recap what the Burn Bar actually shows. It compares how many calories you’ve burned in the past two minutes of your workout (and at the end, the average for the whole workout) to people who are roughly the same age, weight, and gender (so newbies aren’t compared to elite athletes). You’re given a ranking—“Behind the Pack,” “In the Pack,” “Middle of the Pack,” “Front of the Pack,” or “Ahead of the Pack”—based on how you’re doing.

The Burn Bar Takes Two Minutes to Appear

Since the Burn Bar is based on how hard you’ve gone over the previous two minutes of your workout, it doesn’t appear until after you’ve actually worked out for two minutes. If you’re not seeing the Burn Bar at the very start of a workout, this is probably why.

The Burn Bar Only Shows on Certain Workouts

strength workout in fitness+
Strength workouts aren’t about burning calories.

The Burn Bar only shows up on workouts where the aim is to burn calories. Some workouts, like Strength, Yoga, and Mindful Cooldowns, have different goals. The Burn Bar won’t appear in workouts like these because it’s not a good measure of performance.

In a Strength workout, for example, your goal is to perform high-quality repetitions that build muscle, not to get your heart rate up by bouncing around. The Burn Bar can’t compare your reps to other people’s, so Fitness+ won’t show it.

The Burn Bar Might Be Turned off

After your first workout, you get the option to disable the Burn Bar. If you did that by mistake—or deliberately turned off the Burn Bar at some point—you might need to turn it on.

In a workout, tap the metrics icon in the bottom right of the screen.

metrics button highlighted

Tap the toggle to the right of “Burn Bar” to turn it on.

burn bar toggle highlighted

If the Burn Bar option is already enabled on this screen, you’re probably not seeing it for one of the other reasons—you might need to wait two minutes, or it might not be relevant to your current workout.

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