Updates - where is the taskbar icon?

[NBee]

Hi all.

I have windows updates set to the option "Automatically download but let me choose when to install them". I know it has downloaded some, but the problem is the updates icon which normally sits in the taskbar (near the clock) isn't there.

So I can't choose which updates to install using the 'custom' method. The only time the updates can be installed is when I shut down, but then I don't get a choice, it's all or nothing.

What's going on - where is the icon?


(WinXP Pro SP2)

[shadowpr]

Have you tried to unhide the unused icons?

Or is there an arrow of sorts on the taskbar?

[NBee]

I've tried just about everything!

I've also done some googling - and found several forum posts asking the same question, none with a satisfactory answer. It seems to be a common problem that doesn't have an obvious fix.

[shadowpr]

I assume you tried what i suggested.

What else have you tried?

Have you tried to download and install the updates manually instead of automatic?

Have you tried to turn off auto-update, and then turn it back on?

[tmathews]

You may just have to wait a while. I clicked the icon to download the updates, it started downloading, then later (much later) the icon disappeared. I went to update.microsoft.com to pull the updates manually, got through the scan saying there were updates available, and started downloading. Almost immediately, the icon came back saying my updates were ready to install. The pull download was barely started so this must have been from the initial one. I assume the icon would have come back on its own eventually and that it just had to digest the download before offering to install it.

[glc]

Last Patch Tuesday, I clicked the icon to download and it disappeared. It took 2 DAYS before it popped up again to tell me they were ready to install.

[Force Flow]

Interesting...same thing happened here too.

[rjfvillarosa]

Same here to, and until I read this thread I really didn't give it a lot of thought.

[juppy]

I've gotten to the point where I don't even use the yellow shield to download the updates anymore. I just go to the update site directly, because every time I'd click the shield to update, it would just sit there not doing anything. Then, a day or two later, usually right when I was trying to do something important, it would decide THAT'S when it wanted to update. I just wrote it off to another quirk of having a dialup connection, but the manual way always works better for me.

Of course, that being said, this last update didn't want to install right for me either. It installed everything except the malicious software removal tool and the cumulative patch for IE7. I had to go to the update site again to get those two to install correctly.