Desktop app status bar: Notification vs error message

I'm working on a particular feature that requires messages to be shown in the context menu when user clicks on it.

Option 1

Display different icons for different events (Upgrades and errors for now).

Normal state

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Clicked State

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  • User can see the context from the name

  • Different icons are confusing

Option 2

Display a Facebook like notification "Center" styled icon with numbers instead of warning / other icons. Something like this:

enter image description here

  • Same icon and number of notifications
  • You don't get a short explanation of the notification

Which style of context menu would you prefer and why?

Thanks !!

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