Windows Update Causing Problems

After upgrading to Windows 8 the setting for Windows update was set to 'Automatically Download and Install'. There was no indication that Win 8 checks for updates DAILY and no indication that any updates are being installed. The updates required a restart but nothing reported it to me. I noticed that a few of my applications would not start and others would crash. It was only when I restarted the computer to fix these problems did I see that there were updates installed. After the restart my computer was back to normal.

Is there a way to have Windows 8 indicate to me that updates are being installed or a restart is needed?

You can find it in the Control Panel, open up Windows update and look like side for Change settings.

By default it's set to update automatically but you can change it to the setting shown in the picture for more control. .

I've have already changed the install option. What I really need is to be notified WHEN updates are ready for install or when they are being instaledl without asking me.

I selected the option to download but not install updates. What happen was a message on the update panel that there was 10 updates for the system BUT I still had to download them. I suspect that because I didn't have a specific time to download updates (which is available on the auto maintenance option) no downloads were done.

On the sign in screen in lower right there is usually a notice of updates.

I don't have a signon password and I rarely reboot my system. The signon screen, when I do reboot, only lasts a few seconds since I don't have to enter a password.