Why am I not receiving notifications for MS updates?

I just happened to manually run Windows update today and discovered

that there were 41 updates to be downloaded/installed.  The updates hadn't been run since Sept, 2015.  I have set the option to notify me when updates are to be downloaded and installed.  Since Sept, 2015 I have not been notified of updates.  I tried to move the Windows update icon to the notification area to no avail.  Windows Update is run at Startup, but I see nothing to notify me of the status.  The Windows update was not previously in the notification area, but I did receive messages that updates were available.  What do I need to set to be notified?  I would prefer to have the icon in the notification area - currently I've placed it on the taskbar, but I have no assurance that I'll be notified.