Recently Skype has been sending me notifications about people's birthdays. I don't give a shit about people's birthdays and I don't need Skype to remind me about them.

How to disable birthday notifications in Skype

I found a way to turn off these reminders. In Skype, go to Tools > Options > Notification settings > Display a notification in the Windows tray when someone... and uncheck "has a birthday".

Birthday notifications in Outlook Calendar

I thought that was the end of it. Except just now, I heard a little jingle. Just a little innocent jingle. Where's that come from? I thought. The answer was Hotmail. There was a notification in Hotmail about someone's birthday.

I did some research and discovered the culprit was 'Outlook Calendar'. If you have a Hotmail account, then you have an Outlook Calendar. For me it's like discovering a hidden room in my house that I never knew was there. There's cobwebs and a skeleton lying in the corner. I've never seen the room before and I'm not sure I want it.

How to disable birthday notifications in Outlook Calendar

To stop the birthday notifications, first go to Outlook Calendar, click on the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen, then click on Options.

From here, go to Reminders and uncheck "Show reminder alerts". Don't forgot to hit "Save".

Or better yet, go to Birthday calendar and select "Disable the birthday calendar" to deactivate it entirely.

Hopefully that's it for now. I can't imagine why developers thought these notifications were a good idea in the first place. I don't care if someone's birthday is tomorrow, and I don't want a sound and/or pop-up box to remind me about it either.