C# - Send message to an Active Directory user

I would like to send a message to an Active Directory u开发者_开发百科ser so when he/she loggs in next time they see the message though a popup window. Is it possible to do it in any way beside using the usual netsend?

This is usually a mess when trying to push out a message to a user. If you want a message to pop up, I would suggest that you create a small application with a pull mechanism. When the user logs in, the application should run to determine if they have a message waiting (messages could be in a central database or even file location). If they do, the application could pop up the message. In this way, the application would also bypass most of your firewall/network segment issues. You would only need to open communication to a central location for the data rather than diagnosing network issues for every client.

Not only would this method allow you to do exactly what you are asking for, it would allow you to expand your application to do even more. For example, you could require the user to acknowledge the message in a more formal way than just hitting OK (maybe make them check a box first saying "I read and understand the message"). You could also capture the time when the user saw the message (they might not log in for hours after you send the message). It could also be used when the user is currently logged in and you want to send them a message (the app could poll the server).

While there are downsides to this method (creating an app, installing it everywhere, managing it, etc.) I think the benefits would outweigh the downsides if you really need to have a notification system like you are specifying.

On Windows 2003 you've got an old fashion way of doing that.

In the scriptPath attribut of the AD user nod, you put the name of a script or exe file for example username.cmd.

On your DC, you've got a folder C:\WINDOWS\SYSVOL\sysvol\DOMAIN.NAME\SCRIPTS shared with the name NETLOGON. you just create the file username.cmd in this folder. the program username.cmd is going to be played on every logon of the user. In this file you can put a popup message.

It's still working on Windows Server 2008 R2.