Replacement for XP messenger?

[simonc]

On an XP machine I had a scheduled task which used "net start messenger" to
put up a message box telling any user using the machine to close files
because a backup was about to start.


I am now setting up a machine with Vista and the above command doesn't work.
What is the simplest way to do the same job?

Grateful for advice.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

On an XP machine I had a scheduled task which used "net start
messenger" to
put up a message box telling any user using the machine to close files
because a backup was about to start.


I am now setting up a machine with Vista and the above command doesn't
work.
What is the simplest way to do the same job?

Grateful for advice.

Easiest way is probably to schedule a small batch file, like this:

@Echo off
echo Save your files and close your apps.
echo Scheduled backup is about to start.
pause

Not very pretty, but gets the job done.

 

[simonc]

Thank you Zaphod (!)

This is much neater than messing with various supposed netsend utilities I
found browsing the internet.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Thank you Zaphod (!)

This is much neater than messing with various supposed netsend
utilities I
found browsing the internet.

You are welcome, glad I could help.

Just because, I looked at a way to make it nicer and came up with this:

Save a file called BackupWarning.vbs somewhere, say C:\Users\Public,
with the following line in it:

MsgBox "Save your work and close your apps." & Chr(13) & Chr(10) &
"Scheduled backup is about to start.", 48, "Warning!"

(The above should be one single line. The & Chr(13) & Chr(10) & splits
the message up into two lines, the ', 48' makes it show the yellow
triangle and exclamation point, and the ', "Warning!"' gives it the
title . Google vbscript msgbox syntax for more options, including how
to change the icon displayed.)

Then, schedule a task with the following command:

cscript /nologo c:\users\public\BackupWarning.vbs

A bit nicer than the command prompt popping up, but I've not tested the
scheduling part under Vista so I don't know for sure it will work.
Works fine under XP though.