Explanation

Unlike previous versions, Windows 8 provides no notification on the desktop when updates are available. This free lightweight program restores this lost functionality and also enables the automatic installation of specified updates, useful for keeping Windows Defender up-to-date without user intervention.

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System Requirements

• Windows 8
• Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012

Update History

2013-03-20 (1.6)

• The notification icon will be recreated if Explorer crashes or is restarted.
• Added Polish translation (thanks Barnaba).

2013-02-10 (1.5)

• Running the program a second time will re-display the 'updates available' balloon when updates are available (rather than displaying the 'already running' notice; thanks Noel).
• Added /createtask and /deletetask switches (see below).
• Fixed issue with notification icon.

2013-02-02 (1.4)

• Only one instance of the program can run. Opening a new instance will show the existing icon if it is hidden.
• Fixed issue with /checkonce.

2013-01-31 (1.3)

• Added 'About' dialog box.
• Updates in AutoUpdateKBIDs will be reported as available if they can't be installed automatically.
• Added '/checkonce' flag (see below; thanks to Andre for the suggestion).
• Program will run when automatic updates are disabled (thanks to Gaurav for spotting this).

2013-01-04 (1.2)

First public release.

Features

• Notify user when updates are available or a restart is required.
• Hide notification icon when no updates are available.
• Fully localised into English, Japanese and Polish.
• Uses localised text from the active Windows display language where available.
• Automatically install specified updates by Knowledge Base ID (KBID).
• Option to use Windows Vista/7 icon.
• Option to run at startup.

Credits

• Polish translation: Barnaba.
• Feedback and suggestions: Andrew, Gaurav and Noel.

If you'd like to translate the program, please email me. The list of strings used is available here.

Automatically Installing Updates

Note: you must run the program as an administrator in order for automatic update installation to work. You can set the program to run with elevated privileges at startup.

To automatically install certain updates, you can specify a multi-string value called 'AutoInstallKBIDs' in the registry key 'HKCU\Software\Quppa.net\Windows Update Notification Tool'. For example, to automatically install Windows Defender Definition Updates, set this value to '2267602' (corresponding to KB2267602). You can download the following file to add this value to the registry: Auto-Install KB2267602.reg

Other Settings

Update Frequency

By default, the program checks for updates every 60 minutes. You can change this by adding a DWORD value to the registry key 'HKCU\Software\Quppa.net\Windows Update Notification Tool' named 'UpdateCheckFrequency'. This value is in minutes (e.g. set it to 30 to make the program check for updates every 30 minutes).

Check Once & Exit

If you don't want the program running in the background, you can specify the '/checkonce' command-line option. The program will exit after checking for updates and installing updates in the AutoInstallKBIDs list.

Use the command-line option '/createtask' to create a scheduled task that will run the program daily with the /checkonce option. Use '/deletetask' to delete this task. (You must run the program with administrator privileges to use these options.)

Feedback

Contact me if you encounter any bugs or have any feedback. There's also a discussion thread at the TechNet forums.