Looking for alternative to get notifications of new Gmail messages

My dad had been using Google Talk (for Windows in this case) just for receiving notifications of incoming mail but Google discontinued the app recently (Feb 23rd). They recommend Hangouts but that is not what I want to use.

Are there simple, plain-jane solutions for receiving email notifications? I'm looking for something simple because I had installed Google Talk on my dad's laptop so that he could easily get to his inbox from the app in the system tray. He uses IE for his browser. I thinking doing the same for notifications since I don't want to keep Thunderbird open all the time. Myself, I'm a Windows user and I use Chrome and Firefox.

Thanks.