Weekly quickTIP
Another Brick in the Wall Command
In Vista, the "msg" command is the new "net send."
- By Greg Shields
- 03/24/2008
Recently, I was reminiscing about a story from back in school. I remember back in one of my first computer classes where I accidentally discovered the "wall" command on our early IBM network. Not used with Windows today, that command was a lot like "net send." By typing "wall {message}", I could effectively annoy everyone on the network with some random comment or inappropriate remark.
Even better, because everyone used random logons rather than ones tied to our username, it took the lab administrator a heckuva' long time to figure out who was causing trouble. He he he...
Sadly, Vista today spells the end of our old friend "net send." This command is no longer available on Vista clients for causing massive annoyance (or beneficial announcements). Instead, with Vista we've now got the "msg" command for doing effectively the same thing. Msg allows us to send pop-up messages to users and sessions, and adds the ability to send to a file-based list of people as well as display information about the actions being performed.
Msg remains a fun little tool. And, like with "wall," I'm sure using it will send more than a few people to the principal's office.
About the Author
Greg Shields is Author Evangelist with PluralSight, and is a globally-recognized expert on systems management, virtualization, and cloud technologies. A multiple-year recipient of the Microsoft MVP, VMware vExpert, and Citrix CTP awards, Greg is a contributing editor for Redmond Magazine and Virtualization Review Magazine, and is a frequent speaker at IT conferences worldwide. Reach him on Twitter at @concentratedgreg.