Check Available Mac App Store Updates from the Dock

If the Mac App Store is open and there are updates available, you’ll notice a red badge appear on the App Store icon in the Mac OS X Dock. Of course most users click on that and update their apps from the Mac App Store that way, but for some versions of OS X there is another option to update directly from the Dock!

To update apps from the Dock, simply right-click on the Mac App Store Dock icon and scroll up to “Available Updates”

This will quickly show you all apps that need updating.

Selecting one of these apps through the Dock icon then pulls up the apps page on the App Store, where you can update it yourself if desired.

Although it would probably make more sense to have this launch the update for that app instead, it’s still a handy quick shortcut for updating.

If you’re new to all of this, you can learn how to update apps through the Mac App Store, it’s extremely easy to use and maintain apps this way on the Mac.

Do keep in mind this Dock-based update feature does not exist in all versions of Mac OS X, so if you don’t find the options available within the right-click menu of the App Store dock icon, you’ll need to enter the App Store directly from the  Apple menu as usual instead.