Dec 5

Written by: SAPIENScripter
12/5/2007 9:22 AM 

I use Windows Live Messenger so that my co-workers can contact me. Because we work in different time zones I break for lunch just about the time they are gearing up.  I sometimes forget to set my status accordingly. Because I basically live at a shell prompt, I wanted a quick way to manage my Live Messenger status from PowerShell.  Because PowerShell can work with COM objects, this is actually pretty easy to do.

 $messenger=New-Object -com "Messenger.UIAutomation"

 The Status property will return an integer that represents one of these constant values:

$MISTATUS_UNKNOWN=0>
$MISTATUS_ONLINE=2
$MISTATUS_BUSY=10
$MISTATUS_BE_RIGHT_BACK=14
$MISTATUS_IDLE=18
$MISTATUS_AWAY=34
$MISTATUS_ON_THE_PHONE=50
$MISTATUS_OUT_TO_LUNCH=66

 

I use a simple Switch statement to translate:

 Switch ($messenger.Mystatus) {

    $MISTATUS_UNKNOWN {$status = "in an unknown status"}
    $MISTATUS_OFFLINE {$status = "offline"}
    $MISTATUS_ONLINE {$status = "online"}
    $MISTATUS_INVISIBLE {$status = "invisible"}
    $MISTATUS_BUSY {$status = "busy"} 
    $MISTATUS_BE_RIGHT_BACK {$status = "busy and will be right back"}
    $MISTATUS_IDLE {$status = "idle"}
    $MISTATUS_AWAY {$status = "away"}
    $MISTATUS_ON_THE_PHONE {$status = "on the phone"}
    $MISTATUS_OUT_TO_LUNCH {$status = "out to lunch"}
    
    Default {$status = " lost"}
  }
write "I am $status

Changing my status is just as easy. 

$messenger.myStatus=$MISTATUS_OUT_TO_LUNCH

I can use either the numeric value or the constant.

Now of course, I don't want to have to create objects all the time, so I created a few functions for getting and setting my Live Messenger status.  They are in the attached file. The script also defines aliases since I like shortcuts.

You can't set your Live Messenger status unless you are logged in.  Because I work at home I can get by with a little less security, so I wrote a function to bring up the logon window with my account and password. I enter the password in clear text at the prompt but because nobody is around I can live with that.

Function SignIn-Messenger {
    Param ([string]$user,[string]$password)   
     $messenger=New-Object -com "Messenger.UIAutomation"
     $messenger.Signin(0,$user,$password)
}

 

 You still have to respond to the dialog box and press Enter. There is a method for automatic sign-on which would simply this even further, but because I travel and am often not connected to a network I've never set it up.

So far I've been happy with what I can do in PowerShell that keeps my hands on the keyboard. Hopefully you'll find this useful too.

manage-messenger.txt