Critical Updates For Mac

Apple periodically releases security updates that are deployed via the Mac App Store application, or automatically in the background.

Critical Updates is a small tool that will let you know whenever there are available updates for security-related components.

Each time you launch the Critical Updates application, the utility will scan your system for the current version of the following elements: XProtect, Gatekeeper, System Integrity Protection, Malware Removal Tool, Core Suggestion Assets, Incompatible Kernel Extensions, Chinese Word List, or Core LSKD (dkrl).

Within the Critical Updates main window, you also get to see the current macOS version, together with the build information. You also get to check if the system is configured to automatically install critical updates, if it automatically checks for updates, and if it will download newly available updates.

To change the default setting, just click on the included Mac App Store app icon, and you will be directed to the configuration panel included in the System Preferences, where you can perform various adjustments.

Worth mentioning is that if you double-click on one of the security components included in the panel, the Critical Updates utility will launch a Finder window where you get to see the containing folder for the respective item.

After the initial scan, Critical Updates will poll the App Store for the latest version for each of the monitored security components once every 10 seconds. However, the Critical Updates table will be updated once every 60 minutes.

To help you identify the updates, Critical Updates will highlight the respective component using the red color. This means that the individual component is not updated in the background, and you need to deploy the procedure via the Mac App Store application manually.

Bottom line, Critical Updates is a small macOS utility that can be used to make sure you always get alerts about the latest Apple security patches right away.

The Critical Updates application requires very few resources, so you can leave it running in the background without having it interfere with your system's performance.