WinMsg - A Quick Messaging Utility For Hopefully Any Modern Windows Version

Introduction

After getting fed up with figuring out how to make the msg app work among 64-bit Windows 7 computers in my work-area LAN, I finally decided to make my own open source "net send" or "msg" utility. I dubbed it WinMsg and I deployed it among my colleagues for testing and adoption. I developed it in VB6 so it's not really a complicated app. I can even publish the source code among these pages, eventually though. For now, making the source code available through a download would suffice. I can see it work with most modern versions of Windows, which are Windows 2000 and later. This brave declaration includes Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, etc., but I never made any extensive platform tests, however.

Download

I'll be updating this article eventually but in the meantime, here are the downloadables.

1. WinMsg Setup.exe (1.5 MB, MD5 checksum afbfda7f7a3bf588cc5e2f513fc08183)
   pre-compiled Windows platform installer for WinMsg Version 1.0 Revision 0.
   This resource has been stricken off due to a FALSE POSITIVE reported on this file at https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/8090b18798247ac0b075424c05b8136013844....
2. WinMsg Source.rar (4.66 KB, MD5 checksum c99cf8c5a00e293080d1d766bb78a7d0)
   WinMsg source code.
3. WinMsg_Installer.zip (1,466,463 bytes, MD5 checksum fc2192e4fd8fd05c91c296b766bf95db)
   Alternative WinMsg zipped installation package.

Software License

I am hereby releasing it with a GPL license, and the specifications of which can be found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. In the interest of non-committal "absolvency", I reserve the right to modify the license of my future revisions of this project. I'll still stick with community-based open source distribution initiatives though.

Quick Usage Instructions

Usage: wm [switches] <remote host> <message>

Use "wm" or "wm /silent" at initial run to bypass this help screen.

Switches available:

  /ap
               add app directory to system PATH variable
  /ias
               install at startup
  /silent
               bypass this help screen
  /rfs
               remove from startup

Note: Some switches require administrator privileges and may not work with some Windows versions.

Example Usage

"wm 192.168.1.1 hi, are you there?"

"wm kitchenpc mom, please make me a quick sandwich. thanks!"

Other Insights

I got frustrated with the Windows 7 msg app as I failed to make it work outside its Terminal Server context. It has the following help text though:

Send a message to a user.

MSG {username | sessionname | sessionid | @filename | *}
    [/SERVER:servername] [/TIME:seconds] [/V] [/W] [message]

  username            Identifies the specified username.
  sessionname         The name of the session.
  sessionid           The ID of the session.
  @filename           Identifies a file containing a list of usernames,
                      sessionnames, and sessionids to send the message to.
  *                   Send message to all sessions on specified server.
  /SERVER:servername  server to contact (default is current).
  /TIME:seconds       Time delay to wait for receiver to acknowledge msg.
  /V                  Display information about actions being performed.
  /W                  Wait for response from user, useful with /V.
  message             Message to send.  If none specified, prompts for it
                      or reads from stdin.

About The False Positive Report

Small-time and community-based developers are having a hard time right now on the incompetent heuristics policies being adopted right now by lazy anti-virus companies. I share the same frustration as that experienced by the developer from NirSoft, shown in this blog article entitled Antivirus companies cause a big headache to small developers http://blog.nirsoft.net/2009/05/17/antivirus-companies-cause-a-big-heada.... Because of these irresponsible FALSE POSITIVE heuristics, our integrity and nobility are being questioned, and yet we only want to add some sanity to the computing experience. We are not malware purveyors, we are well-meaning and well-intentioned developers.