Send a Pop-Up Message to All Computers: net send, msg, and PowerShell

Windows has no built-in command that sends a pop-up to every computer on a network. The net send command has not been supported since Windows Vista, and its built-in successor, the msg command, reaches the user sessions on one computer at a time. To cover several computers, administrators run msg through PowerShell remoting. Some notices have to reach the whole company, stay on screen until people confirm they have read them, and leave a record of who received and acknowledged them. That job moves to desktop alert software.

Table of Contents

1. What happened to net send

2. The msg command today

3. PowerShell: the same message on several computers

4. How to send a pop-up to all computers on a network: net send, msg, PowerShell, or alert software

5. Other ways administrators do it, and what each lacks

6. When you need alert software

7. Frequently asked questions

What happened to net send

The net send command belonged to the Windows Messenger service, not the chat program of the same name. The service accepted text messages over the local network and showed them in a dialog box on the receiving computer. According to Wikipedia’s article on the service, it was designed for administrators to notify Windows users about their networks. It was later misused to send pop-up advertising over the internet, and Microsoft disabled the service by default in Windows XP Service Pack 2. Microsoft’s documentation states that the message functions behind it are not supported as of Windows Vista, because the Alerter and Messenger services are not supported.

The built-in command used instead is msg, which Microsoft documents as a Remote Desktop Session Host command. Hence its main limit: it messages the sessions on one server or computer.

The msg command today

The msg command is documented for Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2016 and later. Microsoft defines it as a command that sends a message to a user on a Remote Desktop Session Host server. On a workstation, it sends a message to the user sessions on the computer where you run it. The sender must have the Message special access permission.

The exact syntax, the parameter reference, and five worked examples are on Microsoft Learn’s page for msg. In plain terms, the command takes these parts, in the order of Microsoft’s parameter table:

• Who receives the message. A user name, a session name, a numeric session ID, a file that lists several of them, or an asterisk, which means every user logged on to the computer. Without a recipient, the command displays an error. A session named as the recipient must be active.
• Which server. An optional server parameter names the Remote Desktop Session Host server whose sessions receive the message. Without it, the message goes to the server you are logged on to. Administrators also use this parameter to address another workstation; Microsoft’s page documents only the server case.
• How long it stays on screen. An optional time parameter sets the number of seconds. Without it, the message disappears after 60 seconds.
• Two further parameters. A verbose parameter reports what the command is doing. A wait parameter makes the command wait for the user’s acknowledgment that the message was received. Microsoft advises combining it with a time limit, to avoid a long delay if the user does not respond at once.
• The text. The message itself, typed after the parameters, or taken from a file. Without any text, the command prompts for it.

The five examples in the msg reference send one message to all sessions of one user, to a named session, and to every session listed in a file. The last two go to every user logged on, once with a 10-second time limit.

What msg does not do

One computer at a time. Addressing every user with the asterisk means every user logged on to the computer where the command runs, or on the one server named in the server parameter. It does not mean every computer in the domain. To reach a second workstation, you run the command again for that computer, or you script it, as the next section describes.

Other workstations need a setting change, with mixed results. Sending to another workstation often fails with “Error 5 getting session names” or “Error 1722 getting session names.” A commonly suggested fix is to let the target computer accept remote procedure calls for Remote Desktop Services: a registry setting on that computer, TCP port 445 open in its firewall, and a restart. The reports are mixed. In a Microsoft Q&A thread, the same steps did not help, and the community answer suggested enabling Windows Remote Management instead. Microsoft’s msg reference does not describe any of this. It is a deliberate per-computer change that widens what the computer accepts from the network.

Home editions. Microsoft’s documentation lists Windows 10 and 11 without naming editions. According to winhelponline and other administrators’ reports, the msg program is not included in the Home editions: the command prompt answers that msg is not recognized as a command. By the same reports, the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions, and Windows Server, have it.

Short messages only. Ansible’s documentation for its Windows message module, which wraps msg, states that the message must be fewer than 256 characters. Microsoft’s reference does not state a limit. Keep the text to one or two sentences.

No record and no formatting. The message is a plain dialog with no formatting and no custom buttons. There is no log of who received it and no delivery report. A computer that is switched off receives nothing. For a formatted message with a record, see pop-up alerts sent through an agent.

Error messages and other symptoms

PowerShell: the same message on several computers

PowerShell lets you run msg on a list of computers in a single run. The remote computers must accept PowerShell remoting first. Microsoft’s page on enabling PowerShell remoting describes what the enabling command does when run as administrator in Windows PowerShell on each target. It starts the WinRM service, creates a listener, and opens the firewall exception. Remoting is enabled by default on Windows Server 2012 and later. On client versions of Windows, it does not enable remoting while a network connection is set to Public. If you skip that check, the firewall allows remote access over Public networks only from the same local subnet.

With remoting in place, PowerShell’s command for running a command on remote computers takes a list of computer names. It opens a temporary connection to each computer, runs the command there, and closes the connection. If the command it runs is msg addressed to every user, the message should appear on each computer in the list. Microsoft’s pages describe the two pieces separately, so test the combination in your own environment first.

For a PowerShell pop-up message on the local computer only, PowerShell can show the standard Windows message dialog. It has a title, a text, and an OK button, on the computer where the script runs. Microsoft’s .NET documentation describes that dialog.

The remoting approach keeps the limits of msg: plain text, no record of who received the message, and nothing for computers that are off. You also maintain the list of computer names by hand. That works for a dozen machines in one office.

How to send a pop-up to all computers on a network: net send, msg, PowerShell, or alert software

Unless attributed otherwise above, facts for net send, msg, and PowerShell come from Microsoft’s documentation; facts for DeskAlerts come from the DeskAlerts 11.5 knowledge base.

Other ways administrators do it, and what each lacks

Administrators reach several computers in other ways too. Each one solves a different problem. None of them records who read the message.

• Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager push a notification or a script to managed devices. They are deployment tools: the message is delivered as a task, not shown as an alert, and nothing records who read it.
• A Group Policy logon message shows a text at sign-in only; employees who are already logged on do not see it.
• Task Scheduler repeats a script on a schedule and nothing more.
• RMM tools can run the msg command on managed endpoints with the same limits as msg itself: one computer at a time, plain text, no record.
• Microsoft Teams, Slack and email reach the people who are looking at them at that moment.

Alert software uses the same deployment tools for its own agent: DeskAlerts installs through SCCM, Intune or Group Policy. It then delivers alerts over its own channel, with the acknowledgment record the tools above do not keep.

When you need alert software

The msg command was built for the sessions on one server; a company-wide notice needs a different tool. When a notice has to reach the whole company, stay on screen until people confirm they have read it, and show who has not, the job moves to desktop alert software. This is what DeskAlerts does for that job, as documented for version 11.5:

• A desktop agent on each computer. It runs on Windows 11 and macOS 12.6.1 or later. High-priority alerts appear on top of other open windows.
• Screen takeover for critical alerts. A full-screen pop-up variant; with acknowledgment enabled, the close button is disabled and the alert stays until the employee clicks Acknowledge.
• Acknowledgment tracking per recipient. DeskAlerts records who received each alert and, with acknowledgment enabled, who confirmed it. The statistics export to CSV or XLSX, and a per-user report is also available. An alert can be resent to those who have not received or not acknowledged it.
• Targeting from Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID. Users and groups are synchronized from Active Directory, including multiple Active Directory domains, or from Microsoft Entra ID. Recipients are chosen by group, organizational unit, IP range, or computer.
• Remote sessions, offline devices, other channels. DeskAlerts supports sessions in Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Azure Virtual Desktop. A Keep Active setting keeps attempting delivery for a set period to devices that were offline when the alert was sent. The alert also reaches the mobile app on Android and iOS as a push notification. Email and SMS (through an SMS gateway) carry a text version, and a Microsoft Teams module is available.
• Scheduled and recurring alerts. Alerts go out on demand, on a schedule, or on a daily, weekly, monthly, or custom recurrence. DeskAlerts runs in the cloud or on your own server.

If your IT team sends outage, maintenance, or security notices more than occasionally, see how DeskAlerts works. The product pages for IT outage notifications and Active Directory integration cover outage notices and directory targeting in detail.

Frequently asked questions

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