NET SEND COMMAND

I'm running a server 2003 at work with about 40+ computers and some laptops (adhoc) running win xp pro and 6 windows 98 pc's.

I want to know if there's a single command which can be run to activate messenger services on win xp from my server without having to go to each computer to enable it. By defualt win 98 has messenger service enabled.

I've realised, perhaps due to security and the nuisance of people using 'net send' command for spam, it' has been disabled in win xp. i've check 5 pc's at work and all disabled completely.

I want to be able to send pop-up messages to each client when the need be, to save me going up and down 3 floors and 25 rooms and handing in pieces of papers and talking to everyone at work when i'm busy.

All help and adivce welcome.

The Pstools suite of tools from the guys at www.sysinternals.com are excellent for controlling computers in an AD domain.

The tool you need is PsServices which has the following syntax:
[code:1]PsService v2.13 - Service information and configuration utility
Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

PsService lists or controls services on a local or remote system.

Usage: psservice.exe [\\Computer [-u Username [-p Password]]] <cmd> <optns>
Cmd is one of the following:
query Queries the status of a service
config Queries the configuration
setconfig Sets the configuration
start Starts a service
stop Stops a service
restart Stops and then restarts a service
pause Pauses a service
cont Continues a paused service
depend Enumerates the services that depend on the one specified
find Searches for an instance of a service on the network
Use the username and password to log into the remote computer in cases where
your account does not have permissions to perform the action you specify.

Omitting a command queries the active services on the specified computer.
Enter -? for help on a particular command.[/code:1]

You can either stick it in a batch file which runs against all computers in your domain, or you can put it in a domain login script.

hi donanak,

you could also define a group policy that sets the messenger service to automatic startup. can be found in "computer configuration / security settings / system services / messenger".

hth
.alx

Thanks guys for your urgent response. I'll try them sometime next week as we've got ofsted inspection throughout this week.

I'll post results later.

if you have a login script running , then you can just net START messenger from cmd that will enable the service until a reboot