[jpzk]

A little troubleshooting required here:

A little icon usually appears in the notification area (bottom of screen on the right) when Windows 7 has updates ready to install.
It is now NOT showing for the past two days (see picture 1)
It also shows in the Start "area" (bottom left after clicking on the "globe") (see picture 2)
I have tried changing the behavior of where and how the notifications appear in the notification area (see picture 3), to no avail.

This is awkward because I usually see the little update icon and then by clicking on it, I decide what to do: install all updates, certain ones, ... whatever.
I placed a shortcut on the desktop for the updates (via the Control panel) for the time being but it would be nice to recover the formerly useful small icon that shows that updates are available.

Of course, I can always just click on "Shut Down" and let the update proceed automatically but I like to be able to decide what updates will be done.

Anyone knows of a trick to recover the small update notification icon that SHOULD be there?

Thanks!!

Attached Images

     

[mhoule418]

Clique sur le petit triangle, 2 icônes plus à gauche. C’est la qu’ils se cachent.
Click on small triangle, 2 icons on the left. That’ where they hide.
When there is more icons, they just get regrouped.

[microlight]

What I discovered once when I was using Win7, was the when the update icon showed, a small box appeared above it saying that updates were ready to install, which I dismissed by clicking the X at top right. Then it stopped doing that, but started installing updates automatically, which I didn't want. I must have missed the X and accidentally clicked the box because that somehow reset Win7 to installing automatically. I had to go back into security settings and change it back.

[MarkJerling]

You may be seeing less updates because mainstream support ended January 2015. Security updates will end January 2020.
I can recommend Windows 10.

[Lord Lucan]

.. once when I was using Win7, was the when the update icon showed, a small box appeared above it saying that updates were ready to install, which I dismissed by clicking the X at top right. ..... I must have missed the X and accidentally clicked the box because that somehow reset Win7 to installing automatically.

No you did not miss the X, that was one of Microsoft's tricks. It caused a furore in IT circles at the time. According to MS the X did not mean you did not want the update, it meant that you had noted the information and the updating would then proceed by default.

---------- Post added 11-22-17 at 04:42 AM ----------

I can recommend Windows 10.

Windows 10 is good technically, but once installed you have surrendered control of your PC to Microsoft for ever more. You cannot henceforth decline further updates without cutting them off altogether, and Microsoft have already got spyware and a certain amount of adware in it. Expect more to come.

MS know that they cannot sell new operating systems to everyone every couple of years like they used to in the heady Win95/98/ME/XP days. PCs have reached the point FTTB that they do everything people want, and people have no reason for further upgrades (except for unspectacular bug and security fixes that don't sell). That is why MS want to move users to a rental business model for a steady income with little effort. Also, MS sees Facebook, Google & co riding high on an advertising based model. To get people onto these bases MS want to move you away from your perfectly satisfactory Win7 and onto Win10 which they can control and hence can taper in "ads and rental" in the future, whether you want it or not.

I'm sticking with Win7 (which I only use for games, otherwise Linux) with updates turned off until it becomes untenable.

[Not a Number]

Toggling the setting usually brings it back.

At this point Windows 7 updates are only security and QC related. I used to check the updates but found after a time there are never any updates that I didn't want installed so why waste my time?

With Windows 10 Pro you can change the upgrade/update path so it defers updates up to 6 months. That way, deprecated updates made obsolete by later updates don't get installed. What I didn't like about Windows 10 is when it updated my custom install of video drivers it installed the gaming optional controls that I didn't want. Turning off the option update hardware drivers automatically solved that.

Running an old OS is fine depending at what are using it for but at some point your hardware is going to fail and you'll find you can't get the OS to support newer hardware or software. It makes more sense to run them on a Virtual Machine which is where my DOS 6.22 and Windows 98 reside now.

[Lord Lucan]

With Windows 10 Pro you can change the upgrade/update path so it defers updates up to 6 months.

The important point : that is only for Win10 Pro (and Enterprise), and not Home editions. Same with their harvesting your user data (by MS and "trusted partners") which cannot be disabled in Win10 Home edition.

Running an old OS is fine depending at what are using it for but at some point your hardware is going to fail and you'll find you can't get the OS to support newer hardware or software. It makes more sense to run them on a Virtual Machine which is where my DOS 6.22 and Windows 98 reside now.

Or run it on a separate PC until it fails, although I have enough old kit to last my lifetime. Older kit is more reliable anyway I find.

The trouble with a virtual machine is that one of the main reasons for running an old OS is for old peripherals, and those will either not run at all from a VM or run very slow, I find. I run Win98 for a fast professional scanner, natively in an old PC (which dual-boots with Linux for subsequent moving the scans out over my network) and I use the Win98 side for nothing else. Similarly I run WinXP in another PC for games. There is no sensitive data of mine in these PCs after I have moved those scans out.

I do have half a dozen OSs in VMs (hosted in Devuan Linux), from DOS to Solaris, mostly for the heck of it. I did once use the VM hosted XP however to play along for almost an hour with some Indian scammers who said they were calling from "Windows" and that my PC had a virus

---

Last edited by Lord Lucan; 11-22-2017 at 07:23 AM. Reason: Clarity

[jpzk]

Clique sur le petit triangle, 2 icônes plus à gauche. C’est la qu’ils se cachent.
Click on small triangle, 2 icons on the left. That’ where they hide.
When there is more icons, they just get regrouped.

Sorry, but it's not there. I had checked that too.

---------- Post added 11-22-17 at 09:36 AM ----------

Thanks for the info, folks.
If someone can come up with further suggestions to get this icon back, it would be appreciated.

[clickclick]

How about no new updates since you last applied them,hence the notification is not popping up since there's nothing to notify for? Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of the month, and for the most part, MS has been adhering to the "patch Tuesday" schedule. Have you already nailed this month's patches? If you were up to date prior to that, then there's nothing else for it to go grab. This link might be of some use - Woody has had some good info on MS patching strategies etc.

Category » Windows Patches/Security « @ AskWoody

and if you have a big cup of your favorite beverage - this might call for something stronger than coffee...., roll up your sleeves and you can get deep on MS patching strategies and (your) survival:

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3153213/microsoft-windows/how-to-hang-on-t...-long-run.html

[MarkJerling]

Windows 10 is good technically, but once installed you have surrendered control of your PC to Microsoft for ever more. You cannot henceforth decline further updates without cutting them off altogether, and Microsoft have already got spyware and a certain amount of adware in it. Expect more to come.

MS know that they cannot sell new operating systems to everyone every couple of years like they used to in the heady Win95/98/ME/XP days. PCs have reached the point FTTB that they do everything people want, and people have no reason for further upgrades (except for unspectacular bug and security fixes that don't sell). That is why MS want to move users to a rental business model for a steady income with little effort. Also, MS sees Facebook, Google & co riding high on an advertising based model. To get people onto these bases MS want to move you away from your perfectly satisfactory Win7 and onto Win10 which they can control and hence can taper in "ads and rental" in the future, whether you want it or not.

I'm sticking with Win7 (which I only use for games, otherwise Linux) with updates turned off until it becomes untenable.

I still recommend Windows 10. (I run the Pro version on all my machines) It works much better than 7 or 8 in many small ways.

[jpzk]

How about no new updates since you last applied them,hence the notification is not popping up since there's nothing to notify for? Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of the month, and for the most part, MS has been adhering to the "patch Tuesday" schedule. Have you already nailed this month's patches? If you were up to date prior to that, then there's nothing else for it to go grab. This link might be of some use - Woody has had some good info on MS patching strategies etc.

Category » Windows Patches/Security « @ AskWoody

and if you have a big cup of your favorite beverage - this might call for something stronger than coffee...., roll up your sleeves and you can get deep on MS patching strategies and (your) survival:

How to hang on to Windows 7 for the long run | InfoWorld

I still recommend Windows 10. (I run the Pro version on all my machines) It works much better than 7 or 8 in many small ways.

The problem has disappeared, .e.: the notifications work as they should for the past few days. No idea what happened but it could be, as you (Click Click) mentioned: updates messing up the system.
The PC will eventually be updated to Win 10 but with the old Win 7 "look".
I am replying via a Win 10 machine right now ... no problem so far except for that huge (unwanted) update of a few days ago.

[clickclick]

no problem so far except for that huge (unwanted) update of a few days ago.

yeah, gotta just love M$ for the forced updates in WIn10. The constant data collection plus no real control on when updates occur (the "defer" option only delays the agony) is a combination that makes my stomach turn. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Ugh - got until January 14, 2020 before 7 Pro drops off extended support.....

[nicolpa47]

I have to say that I "upgraded" 2 Win 7 machines to Win 10 just before the free upgrade offer expired. I have not used them a great deal as yet, but I am starting now to use one much more. I have set them up to appear as much as possible like XP/Win 7(using Classic Shell), and I have no real complaints about the way it works - apart from the updates themselves.

The autumn 2017 Creator's update took about 4 days over the 2 machines with the software requiring repeated attempts to upgrade before eventual success. For the first machine I had forgotten that I use 2 encryption programs that Win 10 doesn't like whilst upgrading - uninstall/upgrade/re-install has to be done. When I did the second machine, I did the uninstalls, but the upgrade still "fell over" a couple of times. Using the upgrade assistant eventually sorted the issue. Each machine took roughly the same amount of time to upgrade successfully.

The updates do not always seem to abide by the settings I've made to control the updates and nuisance restarts still occur. The whole update process is not as smooth as it was under previous Windows versions and it takes too long. If I was still working it would be costing me far too much time resulting in problems in dealing with clients within allowed timescales.

[clickclick]

Even my teenage daughters scream out in agony as they power up their laptops to do school work etc., and they are stuck waiting on updates - has nailed them in class too. Understand wanting to keep things up to date, but IMHO, MS went overboard in 10, especially the Pro version - need to give some control back to the user. And talk about schizophrenic - with the Creator's update, on right clicking the start menu, we're going to take away control panel, but replace a classic command prompt with Power Shell - so we put on hardcore admin tool like Power Shell, but take away the direct link to control panel that the power user would appreciate. Yeah, I know, it's got the new "Settings" link, which for me, is just annoying to say the least.

And while I'm at it, 10 is just plain ugly. It amazes me that you can pick any color you want going even back to the DOS and Win 3 days for backgrounds, borders etc., but not in 10. I snagged a copy of Object Desktop, Start 10 etc. so I could at least make it look a little nicer and get some control back:

https://www.stardock.com/products/

[jpzk]

yeah, gotta just love M$ for the forced updates in WIn10. The constant data collection plus no real control on when updates occur (the "defer" option only delays the agony) is a combination that makes my stomach turn. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. Ugh - got until January 14, 2020 before 7 Pro drops off extended support.....

Yeah, that bugs me too ... we HAVE TO "accept" the updates ! Well, sort of.
Win 7 being very stable ... I hate to have to "upgrade".

---------- Post added 12-15-17 at 02:44 PM ----------

I have to say that I "upgraded" 2 Win 7 machines to Win 10 just before the free upgrade offer expired. I have not used them a great deal as yet, but I am starting now to use one much more. I have set them up to appear as much as possible like XP/Win 7(using Classic Shell), and I have no real complaints about the way it works - apart from the updates themselves.

The autumn 2017 Creator's update took about 4 days over the 2 machines with the software requiring repeated attempts to upgrade before eventual success. For the first machine I had forgotten that I use 2 encryption programs that Win 10 doesn't like whilst upgrading - uninstall/upgrade/re-install has to be done. When I did the second machine, I did the uninstalls, but the upgrade still "fell over" a couple of times. Using the upgrade assistant eventually sorted the issue. Each machine took roughly the same amount of time to upgrade successfully.

The updates do not always seem to abide by the settings I've made to control the updates and nuisance restarts still occur. The whole update process is not as smooth as it was under previous Windows versions and it takes too long. If I was still working it would be costing me far too much time resulting in problems in dealing with clients within allowed timescales.

Even my teenage daughters scream out in agony as they power up their laptops to do school work etc., and they are stuck waiting on updates - has nailed them in class too. Understand wanting to keep things up to date, but IMHO, MS went overboard in 10, especially the Pro version - need to give some control back to the user. And talk about schizophrenic - with the Creator's update, on right clicking the start menu, we're going to take away control panel, but replace a classic command prompt with Power Shell - so we put on hardcore admin tool like Power Shell, but take away the direct link to control panel that the power user would appreciate. Yeah, I know, it's got the new "Settings" link, which for me, is just annoying to say the least.

And while I'm at it, 10 is just plain ugly. It amazes me that you can pick any color you want going even back to the DOS and Win 3 days for backgrounds, borders etc., but not in 10. I snagged a copy of Object Desktop, Start 10 etc. so I could at least make it look a little nicer and get some control back:

Software: Windows Customization Apps from Stardock

That sucks alright !
Upon the update (Win 10 Creator's) I have lost a few applications ... nowhere to be found BUT all "built in" Windows app's sure stayed.
And yes it is ugly and not so user friendly. Took me a while to find the command prompt! When this laptop here (Win 10) gets the update, I will make sure the the Win 7 "configuration" (the looks and menu items) are there. I've seen one such system after the update and it does retain the look and feel of the good old Win 7.

Anyway, it still works OK with Photoshop, at least it hasn't gone away.

---------- Post added 12-15-17 at 02:44 PM ----------

BTW, did I say that the Win 7 notification thing went back to normal ?