Windows [cmd.exe] command to display a messagebox with timeout?

Question

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How can I display a messagebox by typing a single Windows command, e.g. in the Run dialog from the Start menu, or in the [cmd.exe] command interpreter?

Answer 1

One way is to use apparently undocumented functionality, namely that [mshta.exe], the runtime engine for Windows .hta HTML applications, accepts a general URL as command line argument, including a javascript: protocol URL:

mshta "javascript:var sh=new ActiveXObject( 'WScript.Shell' ); sh.Popup( 'Message!', 10, 'Title!', 64 );close()"

            

This command can be issued in e.g. [cmd.exe]], or e.g. in the Run dialog from the Start menu, perhaps combined with the schtasks command to create a tea-timer…

The above messagebox times out after 10 seconds, but specifying a 0 second timeout means “don’t time out”, producing a more ordinary persistent messagebox.

For a simpler messagebox you can instead use the alert function provided by the MSHTA host.

Answer 2

on command prompt:

msg %username% Message

interesting parameters are:

/w        (wait for user) 
/time:<seconds>

Answer 3

Found that if you copy msg.exe from a Win7 Pro machine to a Win7 Home machine it works. Copy msg.exe to and from the C:\Windows\System32 folder.

Answer 4

What if you create a small VBScript with the message you want to display? I.e. create e file, named "Message.vbs" with the content:

MsgBox "Some info here", 0, "Message Title"

and call it like this:

cscript.exe PATH\Message.vbs