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Create a Check for updates shortcut in Windows 10

Windows 10 is set to check for updates automatically unless you disable this feature manually. Sometimes you need to immediately check for updates in Windows 10. You can save your time and create a special shortcut to force Windows 10 check for updates at once.
Check for updates shortcut in actionTo create such a shortcut, we will use one of the ms-settings commands available in Windows 10. You will find the full list of commands here: Open various Settings pages directly in Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Create a Check for updates shortcut in Windows 10

  1. Right click the empty space on your Desktop and select New -> Shortcut:
    Windows 10 desktop new shortcut
  2. In the location of the item, enter the following:
    explorer ms-settings:windowsupdate-action

    Check for updates shortcut target

  3. Give your shortcut an appropriate name like "Check for Updates" and specify the desired icon:Check for updates shortcut nameCheck for updates shortcut icon

The next time you need to check for updates quickly, click the shortcut you just created.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

3 thoughts on “Create a Check for updates shortcut in Windows 10”

  1. Will this only check for updates or will it cause it to both check and then download any found updates (like clicking the button normally)?

    Currently I have set up a scheduled task that launches %systemroot%\system32\usoclient.exe with the argument StartScan

    I then made a simple console application that via cmd runs the scheduled task (Because I can… I know there are probably better ways to deal with the launching of the task but I know how to do it this way and it works) and then I set up a voice command in Voice Attack which when triggered will launch the application hidden which will then check for updates without also downloading them (since I have edited the gpedit value for autocheck to notify for download and install)

    The above lets me check for updates but without automatically installing them (all in the background) and then manually lets me go to the settings page and check which updates are available at which point I can use the MS-provided-tool to hide any updates if I so choose. But after you’ve hidden an update it will still show in update until you do another update search, which means if you just click “install” then the hidden update will still be installed(!) so after I’ve hidden the update I do the update check again via the voice command and then it’ll be properly hidden, letting me install the other updates without issue.

    … … You know, all the things Windows 7 let us do out of the box and in the actual Windows Update window (minus voice command, but then it’s not really needed)…. FFS Microsoft.

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