No systray notice of installed updates after Windows Updates

[Highcountryride]

Until the October 2014 updates I would always receive a sytray notice of which updates had been installed. To clarify, after new Windows Updates were installed and with or without a reboot of the system, I would receive a systray notification that new updates had been installed and upon clicking that notification a window would open and show the updates that had been installed and success or failure status.

I no longer receive that notification. This was true for the October and November patch Tuesday updates. I can open Windows Update and select View Update History and see that the updates were installed but the systray notification only showed the latest installation history and was more convenient that having to open Windows Update to view the update history.

Anyone have any idea as to what caused the systray notification to stop working after updates were installed? OS is Win 7 Home Premium SP 1.

TIA for any replies.

 

[Highcountryride]

Should I post this in the Windows 7 General Discussion forum? Doesn't seem to be much response here.

 

[Callender]

Possible reasons

Well one possibility is you might have set the system tray not to show balloon notifications.

View attachment 340538​

Try this:

Start > Run then type

regedit

Press Enter

Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

If you see NoSMBallonTip in the right pane with a value set to 0 - double click and change it to 1

Reboot and test. If no change undo the above!

 

[Highcountryride]

Thanks for the reply. I checked regedit and under the path you posted I don't have anything listed under Polices. No Explorer or anything else.

I know I didn't knowingly disable the balloon notifications and it had been working fine prior to the October 2014 patch Tuesday updates. In the systray Customize option everything available is set to either Show con and notifications or Only show notifications. Nothing listed in the Customize options is set to Hide icon or notifications.

 

[Callender]

Other things to try

Okay well that rules out one possible cause.

You can also check the following tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11442-notifications-enable-disable-message-balloons.html

Basically do anything mentioned that enables balloon tips.

Afterwards remember to check your notification are icons too:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ons-hide-show-system-icons-notifications.html

If the Windows Update icon is set to Hide icon and notifications it could cause the problem.

 

[Highcountryride]

Okay well that rules out one possible cause.
If the Windows Update icon is set to Hide icon and notifications it could cause the problem.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I can do the Local Group Policy editor option because I'm running Win 7 Home Premium and it only functions for Pro and Ultimate versions of Win 7
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11442-notifications-enable-disable-message-balloons.html

Also, I don't have a Windows Update icon showing in my list of icons shown under Customize. Perhaps that is the problem although I do get balloon notifications when Windows Updates are available. The only thing I'm not getting is the notification balloon after updates have been installed.

It looks like I have some icons in the Customize window that do not have the correct icon for the description listed under it. I found this other tutorial related to How to Reset the Notification Area Icons Cache:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/13102-notification-area-icons-reset.html
It requires downloading and running a .bat file. Would this be a safe thing to do? I'm always a little leery of causing more problems with my system by trying to correct a relatively minor behavior change!

 

[Callender]

Reset notification area icons

Yes it's safe to reset notification area icons but for good measure I'd suggest rebuilding the icon cache first:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/49819-icon-cache-rebuild.html

Use method 2 in the above tutorial and make sure you've rebooted before running the reset notification area icons fix.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/13102-notification-area-icons-reset.html

Note: You'll then need to re-apply any custom changes that you've made to the way your notification area icons are displayed.

See this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ons-hide-show-system-icons-notifications.html

 

[Highcountryride]

It returned

I hadn't had a chance to apply your suggestions but this morning when I started my system, after about 5 minutes, I did receive a balloon notification that the November patch Tuesday updates had been installed and upon clicking the balloon I saw the expected list of updates.

Unusual that it had taken that long for the notification to appear but I think I will wait until next month's updates to see if I get the installed updates notification balloon. If not, I will probably apply your suggestions and see what the result is.

Thanks for the help and I'll post back the results.

 

[Callender]

Windows Update notifications

The strange that I got a Windows Update today rather than the usual monthly updates. I guess if notifications are working then just leave things as they are. You might want to check Windows Update history to see if you got any new updates out of cycle.

 

[Highcountryride]

Yeah, I got the same out of cycle update notice if it was KB3011780. Critical for Windows Server systems but not rated for Windows 7. I might wait a day or two on that one.