[popup] How can you create pop up messages in a batch script?

I need to know how to make popup messages in batch scripts without using VBScript or KiXtart or any other external scripting/programming language. I have zero clue about this... had no starting point even. I am aware of NET SEND but the Messenger service is disabled in my current environment.

So, i present cmdmsg.bat.

The code is:

@echo off
echo WScript.Quit MsgBox(%1, vbYesNo) > #.vbs
cscript //nologo #.vbs
echo. >%ERRORLEVEL%.cm
del #.vbs
exit /b

And a example file:

@echo off 
cls 
call cmdmsg "hi select yes or no"

if exist "6.cm" call :yes
if exist "7.cm" call :no

:yes
cls
if exist "6.cm" del 6.cm
if exist "7.cm" del 7.cm
echo.
echo you selected yes
echo.
pause >nul
exit /b

:no
cls
if exist "6.cm" del 6.cm
if exist "7.cm" del 7.cm
echo.
echo aw man, you selected no
echo.
pause >nul
exit /b

Your best bet is to use NET SEND as documented on Rob van der Woude's site.

Otherwise, you'll need to use an external scripting program. Batch files are really intended to send messages via ECHO.

I put together a script based on the good answers here & in other posts

You can set title timeout & even sleep to schedule it for latter & \n for new line

also you get back the key press into a variable (%pop.key%).

Here is my code

msg * Hello world

works for me..

You can take advantage of CSCRIPT.EXE or WSCRIPT.EXE (which have been present in every version of Windows since, I believe, Windows 95) like this:

echo msgbox "Hey! Here is a message!" > %tmp%\tmp.vbs
cscript /nologo %tmp%\tmp.vbs
del %tmp%\tmp.vbs

or

echo msgbox "Hey! Here is a message!" > %tmp%\tmp.vbs
wscript %tmp%\tmp.vbs
del %tmp%\tmp.vbs

You could also choose the more customizeable PopUp command. This example gives you a 10 second window to click OK, before timing out:

echo set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") > %tmp%\tmp.vbs
echo WScript.Quit (WshShell.Popup( "You have 10 seconds to Click 'OK'." ,10 ,"Click OK", 0)) >> %tmp%\tmp.vbs
cscript /nologo %tmp%\tmp.vbs
if %errorlevel%==1 (
  echo You Clicked OK
) else (
  echo The Message timed out.
)
del %tmp%\tmp.vbs

In their above context, both cscript and wscript will act the same. When called from a batch file, bot cscript and wscript will pause the batch file until they finish their script, then allow the file to continue.

When called manually from the command prompt, cscript will not return control to the command prompt until it is finished, while wscript will create a seprate thread for the execution of it's script, returning control to the command prompt even before it's script has finished.

Other methods discussed in this thread do not cause the execution of batch files to pause while waiting for the message to be clicked on. Your selection will be dictated by your needs.

Note: Using this method, multiple button and icon configurations are available to cover various yes/no/cancel/abort/retry queries to the user: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee156593.aspx

msg * message goes here

That method is very simple and easy and should work in any batch file i believe. The only "downside" to this method is that it can only show 1 message at once, if there is more than one message it will show each one after the other depending on the order you put them inside the code. Also make sure there is a different looping or continuous operator in your batch file or it will close automatically and only this message will appear. If you need a "quiet" background looping opperator, heres one:

pause >nul

That should keep it running but then it will close after a button is pressed.

Also to keep all the commands "quiet" when running, so they just run and dont display that they were typed into the file, just put the following line at the beginning of the batch file:

@echo off

I hope all these tips helped!

Few more ways (in all of them the script waits for button pressing unlike msg.exe).

1) The geekiest and hackiest - it uses the IEXPRESS to create small exe that will create a pop-up with a single button (it can create two more types of pop-up messages).Works on EVERY windows from XP and above:

;@echo off
;setlocal

;set ppopup_executable=popupe.exe
;set "message2=click OK to continue"
;
;del /q /f %tmp%\yes >nul 2>&1
;
;copy /y "%~f0" "%temp%\popup.sed" >nul 2>&1

;(echo(FinishMessage=%message2%)>>"%temp%\popup.sed";
;(echo(TargetName=%cd%\%ppopup_executable%)>>"%temp%\popup.sed";
;(echo(FriendlyName=%message1_title%)>>"%temp%\popup.sed"
;
;iexpress /n /q /m %temp%\popup.sed
;%ppopup_executable%
;rem del /q /f %ppopup_executable% >nul 2>&1

;pause

;endlocal
;exit /b 0


[Version]
Class=IEXPRESS
SEDVersion=3
[Options]
PackagePurpose=InstallApp
ShowInstallProgramWindow=1
HideExtractAnimation=1
UseLongFileName=0
InsideCompressed=0
CAB_FixedSize=0
CAB_ResvCodeSigning=0
RebootMode=N
InstallPrompt=%InstallPrompt%
DisplayLicense=%DisplayLicense%
FinishMessage=%FinishMessage%
TargetName=%TargetName%
FriendlyName=%FriendlyName%
AppLaunched=%AppLaunched%
PostInstallCmd=%PostInstallCmd%
AdminQuietInstCmd=%AdminQuietInstCmd%
UserQuietInstCmd=%UserQuietInstCmd%
SourceFiles=SourceFiles
[SourceFiles]
SourceFiles0=C:\Windows\System32\
[SourceFiles0]
%FILE0%=


[Strings]
AppLaunched=subst.exe
PostInstallCmd=<None>
AdminQuietInstCmd=
UserQuietInstCmd=
FILE0="subst.exe"
DisplayLicense=
InstallPrompt=

2) Using MSHTA. Also works on every windows machine from XP and above (despite yhe OP do not wants "external" languages the jsvascript here is minimized).Should be saved as .bat:

@if (true == false) @end /*!
@echo off
mshta "about:<script src='file://%~f0'></script><script>close()</script>" %*
goto :EOF */

alert("Hello, world!");

or in one line:

mshta "about:<script>alert('Hello, world!');close()</script>"

or

mshta "javascript:alert('message');close()"

or

mshta.exe vbscript:Execute("msgbox ""message"",0,""title"":close")

3) Here's parametrized .bat/jscript hybrid (should be saved as bat) .It again uses jscript despite the OP request but as it is a bat it can be called as a bat file without worries.It uses POPUP which allows a little bit more control than the more populae MSGBOX.It uses WSH ,but not MSHTA like in the example above.

 @if (@x)==(@y) @end /***** jscript comment ******
     @echo off

     cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~f0" "%~nx0" %*
     exit /b 0

 @if (@x)==(@y) @end ******  end comment *********/


var wshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
var args=WScript.Arguments;
var title=args.Item(0);

var timeout=-1;
var pressed_message="button pressed";
var timeout_message="timedout";
var message="";

function printHelp() {
    WScript.Echo(title + "[-title Title] [-timeout m] [-tom \"Time-out message\"] [-pbm \"Pressed button message\"]  [-message \"pop-up message\"]");
}

if (WScript.Arguments.Length==1){
    runPopup();
    WScript.Quit(0);
}

if (args.Item(1).toLowerCase() == "-help" ||  args.Item(1).toLowerCase() == "-h" ) {
    printHelp();
    WScript.Quit(0);
}

if (WScript.Arguments.Length % 2 == 0 ) {
    WScript.Echo("Illegal arguments ");
    printHelp();
    WScript.Quit(1);
}

for (var arg = 1 ; arg<args.Length;arg=arg+2) {

    if (args.Item(arg).toLowerCase() == "-title") {
        title = args.Item(arg+1);
    }

    if (args.Item(arg).toLowerCase() == "-timeout") {
        timeout = parseInt(args.Item(arg+1));
        if (isNaN(timeout)) {
            timeout=-1;
        }
    }

    if (args.Item(arg).toLowerCase() == "-tom") {
        timeout_message = args.Item(arg+1);
    }

    if (args.Item(arg).toLowerCase() == "-pbm") {
        pressed_message = args.Item(arg+1);
    }

    if (args.Item(arg).toLowerCase() == "-message") {
        message = args.Item(arg+1);
    }
}

function runPopup(){
    var btn = wshShell.Popup(message, timeout, title, 0x0 + 0x10);

    switch(btn) {
        // button pressed.
        case 1:
            WScript.Echo(pressed_message);
            break;

        // Timed out.
        case -1:
           WScript.Echo(timeout_message);
           break;
    }
}

runPopup();

4) and one jscript.net/.bat hybrid (should be saved as .bat) .This time it uses .NET and compiles a small .exe file that could be deleted:

@if (@X)==(@Y) @end /****** silent jscript comment ******

@echo off
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::       compile the script    ::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
setlocal


::if exist "%~n0.exe" goto :skip_compilation

:: searching the latest installed .net framework
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%v in ('dir /b /s /a:d /o:-n "%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v*"') do (
    if exist "%%v\jsc.exe" (
        rem :: the javascript.net compiler
        set "jsc=%%~dpsnfxv\jsc.exe"
        goto :break_loop
    )
)
echo jsc.exe not found && exit /b 0
:break_loop



call %jsc% /nologo /out:"%~n0.exe" "%~f0" 
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::       end of compilation    ::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:skip_compilation

::
::::::::::
"%~n0.exe" %*
::::::::
::
endlocal
exit /b 0

****** end of jscript comment ******/

import System;
import System.WIndows;
import System.Windows.Forms

var arguments:String[] = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
MessageBox.Show(arguments[1],arguments[0]);

5) and at the end one single call to powershell that creates a pop-up (can be called from command line or from batch if powershell is installed):

powershell [Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("""System.Windows.Forms""");[Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::show("""Hello World""", """My PopUp Message Box""")

6) Though msg solution is already post as answer here's a better way to be used:

msg * /self /w "hello world"

/self is a not documented switch that will force msg to send the message only to the current user.

This is very simple beacuse i have created a couple lines of code that will do this for you

So set a variable as msg and then use this code. it popup in a VBS message box.

CODE:

@echo off
echo %msg% >vbs.txt
copy vbs.txt vbs.vbs
del vbs.txt
start vbs.vbs
timeout /t 1
del vbs.vbs
cls

This is just something i came up with it should work for most of your message needs and it also works with Spaces unlike some batch scripts

It's easy to make a message, here's how:

First open notpad and type:

msg "Message",0,"Title"

and save it as Message.vbs.

Now in your batch file type:

Message.vbs %*

msg * "Enter Your Message"

Does this help ?