There is a new feature present in newer versions of Windows 10 which is called “Windows Update Status Icon“. This feature was introduced in Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803) and present in all newer feature updates.
This status icon of Windows Update is shown in Taskbar notification area also known as System Tray. The icon is not always visible. It appears only when there is a warning or alert shown on “Settings -> Update & Security -> Windows Update” page.
Since I have set Windows 10 to notify and ask before downloading and installing new updates in my system, it didn’t download available updates automatically. It displayed an alert that some updates are ready to download on Windows Update Settings page.
Since there was an alert available on Windows Update Settings page, Windows 10 started displaying Windows Update Status Icon in Taskbar notification area as shown in following screenshot:
As you can see in above screenshot, the status icon is containing an exclamation mark indicating a warning or alert.
When I hovered mouse cursor over the icon, Windows showed a tooltip “Your device is missing important updates. Select this icon for more info.“.
Clicking on the icon opened Windows Update page in Settings app where new updates were available for download.
When I right-clicked on the status icon, I got 2 options in context menu:
You might get other options as well such as restart now, schedule restart, etc depending upon the Windows Update status.
UPDATE: In newer versions of Windows 10, the Windows Update Status Icon also contains a new option “Hide for now” in context menu which can be used to hide the icon from notification area.
If the status icon also shows in your Windows 10 device and you want to disable or remove the Windows Update status icon, just follow the instructions given on Windows Update page and the icon will automatically disappear from Taskbar notification area.
If you don’t want to install available updates or don’t want to restart your machine as suggested on Windows Update page but still want to get rid of the status icon, you can hide the Windows Update status icon. To hide it open Taskbar Settings page and click on “Select which icons appear on the taskbar” link and set the toggle given for “Windows Update Status” to OFF. It’ll immediately hide the Windows Update status icon on Taskbar.
The Windows Update Status Icon is a nice addition to Windows 10. It’ll help Windows 10 users in downloading and installing updates and keeping their computers safe and secure.
UPDATE: Check out following tutorial to learn about new working method to permanently disable and remove Windows Update Status Icon from Windows 10 Taskbar notification area:
PS: The Windows Update Status Icon is shown by an executable called MusNotifyIcon.exe. You can read more about it in following tutorial:
Published in: Windows 10
About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.
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James says:I have Win 10 1803 build 17134.376, but don’t have this Windows Update Status icon. I’ve checked Taskbar settings where we can select which icons to show in the Taskbar, but it’s not there. What could be wrong? Thank you.
VG says: ^^ The icon will only show if there is an alert or warning on Windows Update page. Keith says:Hello VG,
I also have V1803 but the TaskBar option to turn the WIndows Update Status Icon on, is not displayed on the TaskBar Icon settings screen, it’s missing ?
I’m assuming a RegEdit is missing or has the Icon control turned off, but where in the Registry is it ?
Windows 10 v1809, found no such option found there either? Info in article seems sadly to provide what is referred to as a Wild Good Chase and/or Fool’s Errand.
VG says:You can check out “Improving your update experience” section in official announcement topic of build 17063 which contained this feature for the first time. blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2017/12/19/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-17063-pc/
In an effort to keep you informed about the state of your PC, if Windows Update Settings shows a warning or alert, we will now echo that via a new Windows Update system tray icon. If you right click the icon, you will see options relevant to the current state, such as restart, schedule the restart, or go to Windows Update settings. If visible, this icon can be turned off from within Taskbar Settings.
Also check out changelog of Windows 10 Build 10.0.17063: https://www.askvg.com/windows-10-redstone4-rs4-changelog/ As I earlier said in my comments. This icon will only appear if there is an alert or warning present on Windows Update page, otherwise it’ll never appear. Also the toggle to enable/disable the icon in Taskbar will only appear in Taskbar Settings if the status icon is already visible in system tray.
Zen says:I have got this icon a few times in my Windows 10 laptop. When Windows installs new updates it asks me to restart computer but due to work I dont restart. The next day Windows starts showing this icon in notification area. But this icon is not permanent. It removes when I restart computer.
Paul says: Its not any new thing. I have seen it multiple times in ver 1803. MdS says:Thank you. However, this solution works for a week or two, than the Windows update status icon appears even being disabled.
Pencho says:Hello
We use to install the windows updates to test them first on a few test computers after they were published.
The computers which are not in this test collection are being updated 8 days later, so the icon becomes visible an start to notify our users about the missing updates.
We want completely deactivate this new feature – it is misleading for our users.
How can we do this?
Thanks a lot for the feedback.
Best regards, Pencho
Is there a way to disable the notification through Group Policy for those of us that use a patch management solution, such as WSUS or SCCM?
Andy N says:This Registry hack will disable the notification icon Registry Path: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings
New DWORD: TrayIconVisibility
Set value to 0
Re-start Can be deployed via GPO if needed
We have SCCM in place to deploy the Security updates from backend and no any user involvement is required but still some users are getting this update notification hence need to identify why this is happening.
Please suggest.
