" Is it OK to pop up a notification bubble if you only do it every once in a while?" No it isn't. For critical or really important messages that require user d

" Is it OK to pop up a notification bubble if you only do it every once in a while?" No it isn't. For critical or really important messages that require user decisions, yes. The idea of using pop-ups for notification of important or critical issues is not the problem though, he problem is so many teams within Microsoft and software vendors abused it. For example - "There are unused icons on your desktop." Worse than that is the abuse by installing an icon in the notification area - have you seen the appalling state of many Windows users' notification area? 20 to 30 icons is not unheard of.