Yes you can do that: https://wyday.com/forum/t/188/menuitem-devexpress-ribbon/#post-919
That's C#. The same would apply to VB.NET (instead of a switch statement you'd use a Select Case statement: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cy37t14y.aspx
But the whole point of the automaticUpdater is that it automatically checks for updates. So you don't need a menu or a button at all.
Does that make sense?