Software Center is a Microsoft tool that’s used to install apps, updates, and printers on any University-owned PC running Windows 10 or 11. Windows updates may include pop-up messages/icons that appear on your system and are visible in the bottom-right corner of your screen:
These pop-ups are legitimate messages and serve as part of the process to receive important updates to your software.
Clicking the pop-up will open the Software Center and take you to Software Changes, showing you a summary of the changes and allowing you to decide when they are installed. If you do not click the pop-up, it will disappear in a few seconds, and you can access the Software Center and install the updates at a time that fits your schedule.
Updates to Windows operating systems have a set schedule each month and a required deadline. If you do not take action with the Software Center, these updates install automatically after 8 days and then the device reboots as necessary. This is done after 10:00 PM on that corresponding date. See the image below for a visual timeline of this process:
If you wish to manually control when the updates occur, click on the pop-ups when they appear or access the Updates menu in the Software Center with these instructions. Updates are deployed on a regular schedule to address security vulnerabilities, fix bugs, and add new features to university-owned devices.
Please note: Not all updates can follow this schedule as all software does not offer set patterns for updates and changes. Those updates are deployed for installation when they are available and force the installation on the following Wednesday at 10:00 PM.
If you need assistance regarding this topic, please contact the UWM Help Desk.