No notification of MS November Updates

Up to October I had updates set to 'Automatic' i.e. 'Automatically download recommended updates for my computer and install them'. This resulted in a yellow shield appearing in the notification area which advised me that updates were available to install. Although the updates are normally released by MS on the second Tuesday of the month, that icon generally did not appear until about the Thursday or sometimes Friday following the release day.

After the October updates I changed the setting to 'Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them'. November's updates were released last Tuesday but up to today (Friday) I have received no notification that any are available to install. With the new setting what should I expect to happen/see?

I know from my Sygate Personal Firewall Traffic Log that contact with MS has been made on many occasions during the last month and I presume that downloads have been received. Does anyone know where these downloads are stored on my PC prior to their being installed? Also how would one recognise which files are in fact the updates?

 

The distribution was a little slow this time because four of the updates were revised within 24 hours of their first release.

 

PeteC and Bill Castner - thank you for your quick responses. This morning I was going to do as PeteC suggested, but when I got to my PC the yellow shield was in the notification area! Better late than never I suppose.

I was under the impression that MS was including in this release of patches an invitation to install IE7, but I haven't received any message to that effect. Would be interested to know what others have experienced.