Show a popup message box from a Windows batch file

Question

Is there a way to display a message box from a batch file  similar to how xmessage can be used from bash-scripts in Linux

User · Answer

Following on  Fowl s answer  you can improve it with a timeout to only appear for 10 seconds using the following   mshta  javascript var sh new ActiveXObject   WScript Shell     sh Popup   Message    10   Title    64   close      See here for more details

User · Answer

msg    server 127 0 0 1 Type your message here

User · Answer

Might display a little flash  but no temp files required  Should work all the way back to somewhere in the  IIRC  IE5 era   mshta javascript alert  Message n nMultiple nLines ntoo    close      Don t forget to escape your parentheses if you re using if   if 1    1      mshta javascript alert   1 is equal to 1  amazing     close

User · Answer

A better option  set my message Hello world amp  amp  start cmd  c   echo off  amp  mode con cols 15 lines 2  amp  echo  my message   amp  pause gt nul     Description  lines   amount of lines plus 1 cols   amount of characters in the message  plus 3  However  minimum must be 15   Auto-calculated cols version   set my message Hello world amp  amp   echo  my message  gt EMPTY FILE123  amp  amp  FOR    IN  EMPTY FILE123   DO SET strlength   z   amp  amp  del EMPTY FILE123    amp  amp  start cmd  c   echo off  amp  amp  mode con lines 2 cols  strlength   amp  amp  echo  my message   amp  amp  pause gt nul

User · Answer

This application can do that  if you convert  wrap  your batch files into executable files      Simple Messagebox   extd   messagebox Title Text       Error Messagebox   extd   messagebox  Error  Error message  16  Cancel Try Again Messagebox   extd   messagebox Title  Try again or Cancel  5      4   Never ask me again  Messagebox   extd   messageboxcheck Title Message 0  73E8105A-7AD2-4335-B694-94F837A38E79

User · Answer

Msg    insert your message here    works fine  just save as a  bat file in notepad or make sure the format is set to  all files

User · Answer

Here is my batch script that I put together based on the good answers here  amp  in other posts  You can set title timeout  amp  even sleep to schedule it for latter  amp   n for new line  Name it popup bat  amp  put it in your windows path folder to work globally on your pc  For example popup Line 1 nLine 2 will produce a 2 line popup box  type popup    for usage   Here is the code   lt  --   Begin CMD  echo off cscript   nologo    f0  wsf     set pop key   errorlevel   if  pop key      -1  set pop key TimedOut if  pop key      1   set pop key Ok if  pop key      2   set pop key Cancel if  pop key      3   set pop key Abort if  pop key      4   set pop key Retry if  pop key      5   set pop key Ignore if  pop key      6   set pop key Yes if  pop key      7   set pop key No if  pop key      10  set pop key TryAgain if  pop key      11  set pop key Continue if  pop key      99  set pop key NoWait exit  b  -- End CMD -- gt    lt job gt  lt script language  VBScript  gt   on error resume next q         qsq          Set objArgs   WScript Arguments Set objShell  WScript CreateObject  WScript Shell   Popup           0 Title            Popup  Timeout         0 Mode            0 Message            Sleep           0 button          0 If objArgs Count   0 Then      Usage   ElseIf objArgs 0         or Lcase objArgs 0      -h  or Lcase objArgs 0      --help  Then      Usage   End If noWait   Not wait    For Each arg in objArgs     If  Mid arg 1 1         and  InStr arg       lt  gt  0  Then haveSwitch       True Next If not haveSwitch Then      Message joinParam  woq   Else     For i   0 To objArgs Count-1          If IsSwitch objArgs i   Then              S split objArgs i          2                  select case Lcase S 0                       case   m    message                          Message S 1                      case   tt    title                          Title S 1                      case   s    sleep                          If IsNumeric S 1   Then Sleep S 1  1000                     case   t    time                          If IsNumeric S 1   Then Timeout S 1                      case   b    button                          select case S 1                              case  oc    1                                  button 1                             case  ari   2                                  button 2                             case  ync   3                                  button 3                             case  yn    4                                  button 4                             case  rc    5                                  button 5                             case  ctc   6                                  button 6                             case Else                                 button 0                         end select                     case   i    icon                          select case S 1                              case  s   x   stop   16                                  Mode 16                             case      q   question   32                                  Mode 32                             case      w   warning   exclamation   48                                  Mode 48                             case  i   information   info   64                                  Mode 64                             case Else                                  Mode 0                         end select                 end select         End If     Next End If Message   Replace Message    n           Message   Replace Message   n  vbCrLf  Message   Replace Message           n   If noWait Then button 0  Wscript Sleep sleep  Popup     objShell Popup Message  Timeout  Title  button   Mode   vbSystemModal  Wscript Quit Popup  Function IsSwitch Val      IsSwitch          False     If Mid Val 1 1        Then         For ii   3 To 9              If Mid Val ii 1           Then IsSwitch   True         Next     End If End Function  Function joinParam quotes      ReDim ArgArr objArgs Count-1      For i   0 To objArgs Count-1          If quotes    wq  Then              ArgArr i    q  amp  objArgs i   amp  q          Else             ArgArr i        objArgs i          End If     Next     joinParam   Join ArgArr  End Function  Function wait       wait True     If objArgs Named Exists  NewProcess   Then         wait False         Exit Function     ElseIf objArgs Named Exists  NW   or objArgs Named Exists  NoWait   Then         objShell Exec q  amp  WScript FullName  amp  qsq  amp  WScript ScriptFullName  amp  q  amp     NewProcess     amp  joinParam  wq            WScript Quit 99     End If End Function  Function Usage       Wscript Echo                        vbCrLf amp  Usage                          amp vbCrLf amp        popup followed by your message  Example    popup First line nescaped   n nSecond line                            amp vbCrLf amp        To triger a new line use    n   within the msg string  to escape enter       before    n                            amp vbCrLf amp                           amp vbCrLf amp  Advanced user                         amp vbCrLf amp        If any Switch is used then you must use the  m  switch for the message                          amp vbCrLf amp        No space allowed between the switch  amp  the value                          amp vbCrLf amp        The switches are NOT case sensitive                          amp vbCrLf amp                           amp vbCrLf amp        popup   m          t      tt      s      nw    i                            amp vbCrLf amp                           amp vbCrLf amp        Switch         value  Description                         amp vbCrLf amp        -----------------------------------------------------------------------                         amp vbCrLf amp         m   message     1 2    if the message have spaces you need to quote it                          amp vbCrLf amp                                                       amp vbCrLf amp         t   time      nn     Duration of the popup for n seconds                          amp vbCrLf amp                               lt Default gt  untill key pressed                         amp vbCrLf amp                                                       amp vbCrLf amp         tt   title      A B    if the title have spaces you need to quote it                          amp vbCrLf amp                                lt Default gt  Popup                         amp vbCrLf amp                                                       amp vbCrLf amp         s   sleep     nn     schedule the popup after n seconds                          amp vbCrLf amp                                                       amp vbCrLf amp         nw  NoWait           Continue script without the user pressing ok -                          amp vbCrLf amp                               botton option will be defaulted to OK button                          amp vbCrLf amp                                                       amp vbCrLf amp         i   icon        q     question mark                           amp vbCrLf amp                         w     exclamation  warning  mark                           amp vbCrLf amp                       i info  information mark                           amp vbCrLf amp                       x stop  stop error mark                          amp vbCrLf amp                       n none  lt Default gt                          amp vbCrLf amp                                                       amp vbCrLf amp         b   button    o       OK button   lt Default gt                           amp vbCrLf amp                       oc      OK and Cancel buttons                           amp vbCrLf amp                       ari     Abort  Retry  and Ignore buttons                           amp vbCrLf amp                       ync     Yes  No  and Cancel buttons                          amp vbCrLf amp                       yn      Yes and No buttons                          amp vbCrLf amp                       rc      Retry and Cancel buttons                          amp vbCrLf amp                       ctc     Cancel and Try Again and Continue buttons                          amp vbCrLf amp        --- gt            --- gt    The output will be saved in variable   pop key                           amp vbCrLf amp                           amp vbCrLf amp  Example                          amp vbCrLf amp          popup  tt   My MessageBox    t 5  m   Line 1 nLine 2 n  n nLine 4                           amp vbCrLf amp                           amp vbCrLf amp                       v1 9 By RDR   2020      Wscript Quit End Function   lt  script gt  lt  job gt

User · Answer

First of all  DOS has nothing to do with it  you probably want a Windows command line solution  again  no DOS  pure Windows  just not a Window  but a Console    You can either use the VBScript method provided by boflynn or you can mis-use net send or msg   net send works only on older versions of windows   net send localhost Some message to display   This also depends on the Messenger service to run  though   For newer versions  XP and onward  apparently    msg   username   Some message to display   It should be noted that a message box sent using msg exe will only last for 60 seconds  This can however be overridden with the  time xx switch

User · Answer

I use a utility named msgbox exe from here  http   www paulsadowski com WSH cmdprogs htm

User · Answer

You can use Zenity  Zenity allows for the execution of dialog boxes in command-line and shell scripts  More info can also be found on Wikipedia   It is cross-platform  a Windows installer for Windows can be found here

User · Answer

I would make a very simple VBScript file and call it using CScript to parse the command line parameters   Something like the following saved in MessageBox vbs   Set objArgs   WScript Arguments messageText   objArgs 0  MsgBox messageText   Which you would call like   cscript MessageBox vbs  This will be shown in a popup     MsgBox reference if you are interested in going this route

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Here s a PowerShell variant that doesn t require loading assemblies prior to creating the window  however it runs noticeably slower    50   than the PowerShell MessageBox command posted here by  npocmaka   powershell  New-Object -ComObject Wscript Shell  Popup    Operation Completed    0    Done    0x0    You can change the last parameter from  0x0  to a value below to display icons in the dialog  see Popup Method for further reference     nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  0x10 Stop  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  0x20 Question Mark  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  0x30 Exclamation Mark  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  nbsp  0x40 Information Mark  Adapted from the Microsoft TechNet article PowerTip  Use PowerShell to Display Pop-Up Window

User · Answer

it needs ONLY to popup when inside a vm  so technically  there should be some code like   if  machine type     virtual machine then    echo message box code else    continue normal installation code

User · Answer

This will pop-up another Command Prompt window   START CMD  C  ECHO My Popup Message  amp  amp  PAUSE

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This way your batch file will create a VBS script and show a popup  After it runs  the batch file will delete that intermediate file   The advantage of using MSGBOX is that it is really customaziable  change the title  the icon etc  while MSG exe isn t as much   echo MSGBOX  YOUR MESSAGE   gt   temp  TEMPmessage vbs call  temp  TEMPmessage vbs del  temp  TEMPmessage vbs  f  q

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In order to do this  you need to have a small program that displays a messagebox and run that from your batch file   You could open a console window that displays a prompt though  but getting a GUI message box using cmd exe and friends only is not possible  AFAIK

User · Answer

You can invoke dll function from user32 dll i think Something like     Rundll32 exe user32 dll  MessageBox  0   text    titleText    extra flags for like topmost messagebox e t c     Typing it from my Phone  don t judge me    otherwise i would link the extra flags

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Try     Msg    insert your message here     If you are using Windows XP s command com  this will open a message box   Opening a new cmd window isn t quite what you were asking for  I gather  You could also use VBScript  and use this with your  bat file  You would open it from the bat file with this command   cd C   location of vbscript    What this does is change the directory command com will search for files from  then on the next line    insert name of your vbscript here  vbs   Then you create a new Notepad document  type in   lt script type  text vbscript  gt      MsgBox  your text here   lt  script gt    You would then save this as a  vbs file  by putting   vbs  at the end of the filename   save as  All Files  in the drop down box below the file name  so it doesn t save as  txt   then click Save

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Few more ways   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  gt nul 2 gt  amp 1    copy  y    f0    temp  popup sed   gt nul 2 gt  amp 1    echo FinishMessage  message2   gt  gt   temp  popup sed     echo TargetName  cd   ppopup executable   gt  gt   temp  popup sed     echo FriendlyName  message1 title   gt  gt   temp  popup sed     iexpress  n  q  m  temp  popup sed   ppopup executable   rem del  q  f  ppopup executable   gt nul 2 gt  amp 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  lt None gt  AdminQuietInstCmd  UserQuietInstCmd  FILE0  subst exe  DisplayLicense  InstallPrompt    2  Using MSHTA  Also works on every windows machine from XP and above  despite the OP do not want  external  languages the JavaScript here is minimized   Should be saved as  bat    if  true    false   end      echo off mshta  about  lt script src  file     f0  gt  lt  script gt  lt script gt close   lt  script gt      goto  EOF     alert  Hello  world       or in one line   mshta  about  lt script gt alert  Hello  world    close   lt  script gt     or  mshta  javascript alert  message   close      or   mshta exe vbscript Execute  msgbox   message   0   title   close     3  Here s parameterized  bat jscript hybrid  should be saved as bat   It again uses JavaScript 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 popular 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  timed out   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 lt 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  amp  amp  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  And the dbenham s approach seen here   start    cmd  c  echo  amp echo  amp echo              Hello world       amp echo  amp pause gt nul    7  For a system tray notifications you can try this   call SystemTrayNotification bat  -tooltip warning -time 3000 -title  Woow  -text  Boom  -icon question

User · Answer

msg    time 0  w Hello everybody    This message waits forever until OK is clicked  it lasts only one minute by default  and works fine in Windows 8 1

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echo X MsgBox  Message Description  0 16  Title    gt msg vbs      you can write any numbers from 0 1 2 3 4 instead of 0  before the         symbol   amp  here is the meaning of each number     0   Ok Button   1   Ok Cancel Button   2   Abort Retry Ignore button   3   Yes No Cancel   4   Yes No        you can write any numbers from 16 32 48 64 instead of 16  after the          symbol   amp  here is the meaning of each number     16     Critical Icon   32     Warning Icon   48     Warning Message Icon    64     Information Icon

[windows] Show a popup/message box from a Windows batch file

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