diff --git a/src/xenia/app/check_update.cc b/src/xenia/app/check_update.cc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8533ad759
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/xenia/app/check_update.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+/**
+ ******************************************************************************
+ * Xenia : Xbox 360 Emulator Research Project                                 *
+ ******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright 2020 Ben Vanik. All rights reserved.                             *
+ * Released under the BSD license - see LICENSE in the root for more details. *
+ ******************************************************************************
+ */
+
+#include "xenia/app/check_update.h"
+#include "xenia/base/logging.h"
+#include "xenia/base/platform_win.h"
+
+#include <build/version.h>
+#include <algorithm>
+#include <string>
+#include <cstdio>
+#include <iomanip>
+#include <sstream>
+#include <WinInet.h>
+#include <shellapi.h>
+
+#pragma comment (lib, "Wininet.lib")
+
+using std::string;
+using std::wstring;
+
+
+namespace xe {
+namespace update {
+
+  // convert to wstring
+  wstring CharPToWstring(const char* _charP) {
+    return wstring(_charP, _charP + strlen(_charP));
+  }
+
+  // send https request
+  wstring SendHTTPSRequest_GET(const wstring& _server,
+                   const wstring& _page,
+                   const wstring& _params = L"") {
+
+    char szData[4096];
+
+    // initialize WinInet
+    HINTERNET hInternet =
+		::InternetOpen(
+			TEXT("Checking for updates"),INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_PRECONFIG, NULL, NULL, 0);
+    if (hInternet != NULL) {
+      // open HTTP session
+      HINTERNET hConnect =
+		  ::InternetConnect(
+			  hInternet, _server.c_str(), INTERNET_DEFAULT_HTTPS_PORT,
+			  NULL,NULL, INTERNET_SERVICE_HTTP, 0, 1);
+      if (hConnect != NULL) {
+        wstring request =
+			_page + (_params.empty() ? L"" : (L"?" + _params));
+
+        // open request
+        HINTERNET hRequest =
+			::HttpOpenRequest(hConnect, L"GET",	(LPCWSTR)request.c_str(), 
+				NULL, NULL,	0, (INTERNET_FLAG_SECURE), 1);
+        if (hRequest != NULL) {   
+          // send request
+          BOOL isSend = ::HttpSendRequest(hRequest, NULL, 0, NULL, 0);
+
+          if (isSend) {
+            for(;;) {
+            // reading data
+            DWORD dwByteRead;
+            BOOL isRead =
+				::InternetReadFile(hRequest, szData, sizeof(szData) - 1, &dwByteRead);
+
+            // break cycle if error or end
+            if (isRead == FALSE || dwByteRead == 0) break;
+
+            // saving result
+            szData[dwByteRead] = 0;
+            }
+          }
+
+          // close request
+        ::InternetCloseHandle(hRequest);
+        }
+        // close session
+        ::InternetCloseHandle(hConnect);
+      }
+      // close WinInet
+      ::InternetCloseHandle(hInternet);
+    }
+
+    wstring answer = CharPToWstring(szData);
+    // should we clean this up?
+	  //delete [] szData;
+    return answer;
+  }
+
+  void parse_response(wstring response, string *date, string *url ) {
+    
+    char buf[4096];
+    char * pch;
+
+    sprintf(buf, xe::to_string(response).c_str());
+    pch = strtok(buf,",");
+
+    while (pch != NULL) {
+      if (strstr(pch, "created_at") && !((date)->length())) {
+        *date = pch;
+      }
+      if (strstr(pch, "browser_download_url") && !((url)->length())) {
+        *url = pch;
+        // should we clean these up?
+		    //delete [] buf;
+		    //delete(pch);
+        break;
+      }
+      pch = strtok (NULL, ",");
+    }
+  }
+
+  int OfferUpdateWindow(wstring link) {
+    int msgboxID = MessageBox(
+        NULL,
+        (LPCWSTR)L"There is a newer version available. Would you like to download the latest update?",
+        // (LPCWSTR)link.c_str(),
+        (LPCWSTR)L"Get the latest Xenia-Canary from GitHub",
+        MB_ICONINFORMATION | MB_YESNO | MB_SETFOREGROUND | MB_TASKMODAL
+    );
+    switch (msgboxID) {
+    case IDYES:
+      return 1;
+    case IDNO:
+      return 0;
+    }
+    return 0;
+  }
+
+  void Update::CheckUpdate() {
+
+    char buffer [80];
+    string b_date, b_datetime, date, url = "";
+    b_date = __DATE__;
+    b_datetime = b_date + " " + __TIME__;    
+    
+    // current build time
+    std::tm t_b = {};
+    std::istringstream ss(b_datetime.c_str());
+    // ss.imbue(std::locale("en_US.utf-8"));
+    ss >> std::get_time(&t_b, "%b %d %Y %H:%M:%S");
+    if (ss.fail()) {
+      XELOGI("Parse failed");
+    } else {
+      strftime(buffer, 80, "### current built date : %m-%d-%Y %I:%M%p", &t_b);
+      XELOGI("%s", buffer);
+    }
+    // time at runtime
+    std::time_t t_n;
+    time(&t_n); 
+    std::tm* now = std::localtime(&t_n);
+    strftime(buffer, 80, "### time now : %m-%d-%Y %I:%M%p", now);
+    XELOGI("%s", buffer);
+
+    // get difference of build/run time in hours
+    double diff = (difftime(mktime(now), mktime(&t_b)) / 3600.0);
+    //XELOGI("%f",diff);
+    if (diff > 1.0) {
+      //request api response for latest release
+      wstring answer = SendHTTPSRequest_GET(L"api.github.com",
+		    L"/repos/xenia-canary/xenia-canary/releases/latest", L"");
+
+      //parse response for just the sections we're after
+      parse_response(answer, &date, &url );
+
+      // do some sanitation on the substrings we got back 
+      std::replace(date.begin(), date.end(), '"', ' ');
+      url.erase(0, url.find(':') + 2); //24
+      url.erase(url.find('"'));
+      // XELOGI("### Link to latest build : %s", url.c_str());
+
+      // time of latest build on github
+      std::tm t_l = {};
+      std::istringstream ss2(date.c_str());
+      // ss.imbue(std::locale("en_US.utf-8"));
+      ss2 >> std::get_time(&t_l, " created_at : %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S");
+      if (ss2.fail()) {
+        XELOGI("Parse failed");
+      } else {
+        strftime(buffer, 80, "### latest build: %m-%d-%Y %I:%M%p", &t_l);
+        XELOGI("%s", buffer);
+      }
+      //diff latest/current build time in hours
+      diff = (difftime(mktime(&t_l),mktime(&t_b)) / 3600.0);
+      //XELOGI("%f",diff);
+      if (diff > 0) {
+        if (OfferUpdateWindow(xe::to_wstring(url))) {
+          wstring wurl = xe::to_wstring(url);
+          ShellExecute(0, 0, wurl.c_str(), 0, 0 , SW_SHOW );
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}  // namespace update
+}  // namespace xe
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/xenia/app/check_update.h b/src/xenia/app/check_update.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..89a8d7d1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/xenia/app/check_update.h
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+/**
+******************************************************************************
+* Xenia : Xbox 360 Emulator Research Project                                 *
+******************************************************************************
+* Copyright 2015 Ben Vanik. All rights reserved.                             *
+* Released under the BSD license - see LICENSE in the root for more details. *
+******************************************************************************
+*/
+
+#ifndef XENIA_UPDATE_H_
+#define XENIA_UPDATE_H_
+
+namespace xe {
+namespace update {
+
+  class Update {
+  public:
+    static void CheckUpdate();
+  private:
+    // static int check_update();
+  };
+}  // namespace update
+}  // namespace xe
+#endif
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/xenia/app/xenia_main.cc b/src/xenia/app/xenia_main.cc
index 06c47fefc..e32574409 100644
--- a/src/xenia/app/xenia_main.cc
+++ b/src/xenia/app/xenia_main.cc
@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@
 #include "xenia/hid/xinput/xinput_hid.h"
 #endif  // XE_PLATFORM_WIN32
 
+#if XE_PLATFORM_WIN32
+#include "xenia/app/check_update.h"
+#endif
+
 #include "third_party/xbyak/xbyak/xbyak_util.h"
 
 DEFINE_string(apu, "any", "Audio system. Use: [any, nop, sdl, xaudio2]", "APU");
@@ -66,6 +70,7 @@ DEFINE_transient_string(target, "",
 DECLARE_bool(debug);
 
 DEFINE_bool(discord, true, "Enable Discord rich presence", "General");
+DEFINE_bool(check_update, true, "Check GitHub for new builds", "General");
 
 namespace xe {
 namespace app {
@@ -378,6 +383,13 @@ int xenia_main(const std::vector<std::wstring>& args) {
     }
   }
 
+#if XE_PLATFORM_WIN32
+  // check for updates
+  if (cvars::check_update){
+    update::Update::CheckUpdate();
+  }
+#endif
+
   // Now, we're going to use the main thread to drive events related to
   // emulation.
   while (!exiting) {