Want to display a popup message on schedule or on a specific event or trigger? You can do it using Task Scheduler. Here’s how.
It is not often, but there will be times when you need to display a quick message on schedule or on a specific event, like opening a program or changing a Windows setting. For example, maybe you want to remind users to shut down the computer at a particular time.
No matter the use case, you can use the good old Task Scheduler to show a message in a popup window. Let me show you how to use the Task Scheduler to show a popup message in Windows.
Table of contents:
- What is Task Scheduler
- How to display a popup message in Windows
- What happened to the ‘Display a message’ option?
What is Task Scheduler
Task Scheduler is one of the most versatile programs in Windows. Using it, you can schedule different kinds of tasks to automate regular Windows activities. For example, you can use it to delay startup programs.
As this article shows, you can also use the Task Scheduler to display timely messages using a pop-up window. These popup messages are helpful for quick alerts and information.
How to display a popup message in Windows
We will use the Task Scheduler to show a popup message in Windows. Here’s how.
- Press the “Start” button.
- Search and open “Task Scheduler.”
- Click “Create basic task.”
- Set a “Name.”
- Press “Next” to continue.
- Choose a trigger of your choice.
- Press “Next” to continue.
- Configure the trigger as needed.
- Press “Next” to go to the next stage.
- Select the “Start a program” option.
- Press “Next.”
- Type “msg” in the “Program/Script” field.
- Type “* Replace_with_your_message” in the “Add arguments” field.
- Press “Next.”
- Click the “Finish” button.
- With that, Windows displays the message in a popup window according to the trigger condition.
Steps with more details:
First, open the Task Scheduler by searching for “Task Scheduler” in the Start menu.
Click on the “Create Basic Task” option on the right sidebar of the Task Scheduler.
Now, type the task name and description in the Name and Description fields, and click the “Next” button.
Now, select when the task should start. I want the message to appear as soon as the system starts. So, I selected the “When the computer starts” option. You can choose any trigger you want.
Note: You might need to configure additional options depending on your chosen option. For example, if you choose the Daily option, you must select a time to display the message.
After selecting a trigger, select the “Start a program” option and click “Next.” We will use Command Prompt or PowerShell to display the message window.
In this window, fill in the blank fields as below. If you want to use the command prompt, follow the command prompt method. For PowerShell, follow the PowerShell method.
Command Prompt:
- Program/Script —
msg - Arguments —
* Replace_With_Your_Message
Don’t forget to replace “Replace_With_Your_Message” with your actual message.
Important: Don’t remove * in front of the message in the Arguments field.
PowerShell:
- Program/Script —
powershell - Argument — Enter the below command
-WindowStyle hidden -Command "& {[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('System.Windows.Forms'); [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show('Relace_With_Your_Message','Message_Title')}"Don’t forget to replace “Replace_With_Your_Message” with your actual message and “Message_Title” with a title. The title appears on the window title bar.
Click the “Next” button to continue.
In the Summary window, click the “Finish” button to complete the task creation process.
After creating the task, we can verify whether it is working. To do that, select the “Task Scheduler Library” folder on the right panel, find the task you just created in the middle panel, right-click on it, and select “Run.”
You should see a popup window with your message if everything goes correctly.
Command Prompt:
PowerShell:
From now on, the Task Scheduler will display the popup message window according to the scheduled trigger. In my case, the popup window will appear as soon as I start and log into my system.
What happened to the ‘Display a message’ option?
In older Windows versions, the Task Scheduler has a built-in option called “Display a Message” to display a message whenever you want. However, starting from Windows 8, that feature has been deprecated. That means you can no longer use it to show messages in Windows.
If you try to use the “Display a message” deprecated feature, it will show the “The task definition uses a deprecated feature” error.
The good thing is that you will get the same functionality using PowerShell or Command Prompt, as shown in the above guide.
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That is all. It is that simple to show a popup message in Windows 10 or 11 using the Task Scheduler.
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.
Here are some other Task Scheduler tips you might like:
You’re a life saver! Thank you.
Never got this to work until I saw this post. Bravo!
Copy this to notepad++:
msgbox “My “& vbLf & vbLf & “message text with two line feeds”, vbExclamation OR vbSystemModal, “Message title”
and save it with ending .vbs
Convert to ANSI for Umlaute and special characters to show correctly.
In task scheduler chose script in Program/script field.
Always on top, no powershell flicker, title can be defined. Enjoy!
Florian
Hi Florian,
interesting alternative!
Script on its own works fine, however when I add it to task scheduler and run it it asks me “how do you want to open this file”
Any idea why it does that
Florian, great job!
Thank you so much. I am able to display a message as it was in Windows 7.
Done! Thank you so much.
Can I change the title using the msg method?
The MSG method works great, but is there a way to keep the message on the screen and not disappear after 1 minute?
@Jeremy Koons: You need to cancel the timeout of the message in order to do that. Setting the timeout to 0 will actually do that. Try using the following command:
* /time:0 Hello World!
This is a great tip, thank you!