Hidden Gem: Update Services Notifications (Updated)

I was poking around the WSUS downloads page over the weekend and found a cool utility buried within the API Samples and Tools download. This utility, called Update Services Notifications, is designed to send e-mail alerts when new updates arrive on your WSUS server. Additionally, the same tool can send daily and weekly status reports of WSUS activity.

Here's the trick to installing this little gem. First, download and install the core API Samples and Tools package. Next, browse to the following path and run "setup.msi".

c:\Program Files\Update Services API Samples and Tools\Update Services Notifications

After the install is finished you will have a new shortcut on your All Programs menu called Update Services Notifications. Click this shortcut and you will be greeted with the following configuration screen (click thumbnail for full image).



Once you fill out and confirm the Update Services Notifications window, a new service will be installed and activated on your server. You can double-check this by opening services.msc and looking for Update Services Notifications Service. The service should be started and set for automatic startup.

Your first notifications should arrive within 5 minutes. I've included both a synchronization notification message, as well as a weekly status report. You can view details about each message type by clicking the thumbnail below.