Windows Administration Resource Kit: Productivity Solutions for IT Professionals

2-14: Send Messages to Users

Solution overview

Type of solution	Script
Features and tools	VBScript, PSExec
Solution summary	Leveraging PSExec and the Message_Notification.vbs script, you can once again send messages to users, which is particularly useful to notify users that a server will be taken offline.

Introduction

Back in the good old days, the Messenger and Alerter services allowed you to send a message to a user or computer. Then some bad guys got ahold of those services and started sending my mother messages, over her Internet connection, encouraging her to purchase their wares. Microsoft subsequently locked down those two services so that they now do not start automatically. OK, my mother probably wasn't the only person troubled by the security ...