Text / log editor with auto-refresh support

You can get tail for Windows, a GUI version of tail which implements the tail -f functionality you're used to.

If you're looking for an actual text editor however, check out Notepad++. It can automatically and silently update a file when it detects changes. Simply enable silent updates in Settings -> Preferences -> MISC:

Baretail is a bit rough, and it hasn't been updated for four years, but it's lightweight-enough that I leave it open on a bunch of Tomcat log files whether I'm using them or not...

Snaketail has great potential for a solution.