Monday, April 26, 2010

Windows 7, MSG.EXE and Group Policy Preferences

So, as of Windows Vista, NET SEND is gone.  But you want to send a console message via popup to a remote user or computer?  Windows Vista shipped with the MSG.EXE utility, which is still around in Windows 7.  But there’s a small problem, which led me to another small problem, but thankfully there’s an easy solution.

Problem 1 – You may need to modify a Registry Value on all your networked Windows 7 computers.

  • HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer
  • Value: AllowRemoteRPC
  • Required value: 1 (REG_DWORD)

Problem 2 – Trying to set that on a remote Windows 7 box

The Remote Registry service is disabled by default.  You can start turning on services manually, but…

Solution – Use Group Policy Preferences to do it all at once

  1. Create a new GPO named something that makes sense
  2. Edit the new GPO
  3. Expand Computer Configuration / Preferences / Windows Settings
  4. Click on Registry
  5. Right-click and select New –> Registry Item
  6. Select Action: Update, Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
  7. Key Path: browse to the key shown above
  8. Select the Value name: AllowRemoteRPC
  9. Set the Value data: 1, specify type REG_DWORD
  10. Click OK

If you also want to enable remote Registry editing…

  1. Expand “Control Panel Settings”
  2. Select “Services”
  3. Right-click and select New –> Service
  4. Startup: Automatic, Service Name “Remote Registry”, Service Action: Start Service
  5. Click the Recovery tab
  6. Specify First and Second failure action as “Restart the Service”
  7. Specify Restart fail count after to 1 day, Restart service after 1 minute
  8. Click OK

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Another post on your blog - GASP!!!

skatterbrainz said...

I will still post. Just less often.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, there's surprisingly little information regarding this online.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone actually succeed to send a message between 2 workstations in the same workgroup?
This solution did not work for me.

skatterbrainz said...

Did you look at this already? http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/344aa708-5477-46f9-be4f-ad8b3b2348b0

McFly78 said...

There is an alternative : dMessage (http://eng.dmessage.com/index.html) no problem of security, because you don't have to open ports, and you can send alerts pop up and even more.. try it! there is a free trial version

skatterbrainz said...

But that's not the point. The point is how to leverage the existing (and free) features included with Windows. 7