How to show remote notifications in PowerShell

This snippet code below shows how to set notifications using PowerShell.

If you’re shutting down a computer, it’s good to show a message to alert the user that the computer is going to shutdown.

If Winrm or Windows Remote Management is already configured on the Active Directory environment, you can just run the script remotely.

Provided that the user account that invokes or run the script has the proper rights to access the remote computer.

Net send was quite useful during Windows XP glorious days.

Msg.exe can do the same job with net send, provided that Windows Remote Management is properly setup.

Like winrm quickconfig has been configured, and proper ports are open and of course Windows Remote service is running.

Different versions of Winrm have different ports to open that make msg.exe not as popular as net send.

To check the version of Winrm, open command prompt and type “winrm id”.

Don’t include the double quotes when typing at command prompt.

Running winrm id, will show the version of winrm running on the system.

This link below from Technet got helpful information about winrm.   

         

Installation and configuration of windows management:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384372(v=vs.85).aspx

WinRM 2.0:  The default HTTP port is 5985, and the default HTTPS port is 5986

From Technet link port TCP 5985 has to be open for Winrm if 2.0 version is running on the system.

Displaying remote messages using PowerShell alone is quite a huge task.

But using other tools such as msg.exe or PS tools would make life easier.

Here’s the code snippet on how to display notifications remotely:

#=================================

$MsgCommand = { Msg UserName  "Alert or Display Message"}

Invoke-Command  -Computername 'Remote_Computer_Name'  -Scriptblock $MsgCommand

#=================================

(Note Invoke-Command has to be in one line)

Replace UserName with the name of the actual user.

Replace Remote_Computer_Name with the hostname of the machine.

That’s a wow; using  two lines of code in PowerShell messages or notifications can be displayed remotely.

Of course, proper configuration of Winrm has to be done for these two lines of PowerShell command to run successfully.

Code snippet above can be tweak and configured in GPO as a Logon script.
And display a customized message, with the name of the logged on user.

Never tested this using GPO but I had run it using PowerShell ISE. You can read the code and check whether it will work or not.

Life is full of surprises, when you expect it to work and that would be the time that it will just not work for whatever reason.

#==================================

$GetUserName = [Environment]::UserName

$CmdMessage = {C:\windows\system32\msg.exe $GetUserName 'Hello' $GetUserName 'your PC will shutdown in 1 nano second}

Invoke-Command -Scriptblock $CmdMessage

#==================================
(Note that the $CmdMessage has to be in one line)

It will display a message box like: 

     Hello Bob your PC will shutdown in 1 nano second

The beauty of the script is it will just get the name of the logon user and used it as a parameter of the script. 

This command below will also connect to a remote computer provided that the PowerShell in which this code is exectued has the rights to logon to the remote computer.

Enter-PSSession -ComputerName Computer_Name


This link below provide more detailed example:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2013/12/11/use-powershell-to-create-remote-session.aspx

Use this script to send a message to a group of computers or servers:


$GetUserName =[Environment]::UserName

$CmdMessage = {C:\windows\system32\msg.exe $GetUserName  'Hello' 

$GetUserName 'your PC/Server will shutdown in 1 nano second' }

$pcListing = get-content d:\pc_server_Listing.txt

foreach($Computerx in $pcListing) {
 
  Invoke-Command -Computer $Computerx -Scriptblock $CmdMessage
 
}
                                                                       

Cheers!! Till next time!!!           

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