How to Automate Emails Using SendEmail Tool in Windows 8.1

Keeping up with the fast-paced world and globalized era that we now reside in, checking various log data or sending statistics on our respective servers is imperative, yet tedious. What if there was a way to receive a single email providing us with all the highlights of each day? Or a method to send spreadsheets, files and other reports to your, say supervisor to ensure you remain within his good books EVERY DAY? Well, one might think we’ll have to wait for our next-in-line generation to help us ‘oldies’ out. But, SendEmail SMTP command-line tool makes it possible, today.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to configure automated emails on Windows. Specifically, we’ll be covering Windows 8.1 with Gmail being our concerned server, however, the instructions are easily adaptable to fit other scenarios.

Configuring SendEmail to Send Reports

The task is really not that daunting. All you have to do is maintain a directory to store the automated reports, and send it using the third-party tool SendEmail.

SendEmail is a free program available for Windows that integrates Windows Task Scheduler and Gmail like a breeze. While you can carry out the same functionality using PowerShell, the job can never be done better than this impeccable program. Visit this site and download the latest copy. Make sure to grab the TLS supported version.

Once downloaded, place the extracted content at any chosen directory. In this tutorial, we’ll be placing the folder under C:\ path. Now, let’s test our tool.

• Open Command Prompt by typing cmd in Start Screen and hitting Enter
• Navigate to the directory where you put SendEmail using the change directory command

cd C:\SendEmail

• Paste the following command by modifying “username” and “password” accordingly

sendEmail –f username@gmail.com –t username@gmail.com –s smtp.gmail.com:587 –xu username –xp password –u “Test Email” –m “This is awesome!!”

• Hit Enter
• Check your inbox and verify your first automation success

Before advancing forward, it is important to understand what the command parameters actually meant. Here is a list of the most crucial components you’ll frequently need:

• -f: address of the sender
• -t: address of the receiver
• -s: SMTP server and port
• -xu: account username
• -xp: account password
• -u: subject of the email
• -m: body of the email
• -a: list of attachments
• -o tls=yes: SMTP uses TLS (or SSL)

Now, you’re all set to use Windows Task Scheduler to issue your automated emails every day, week, or month.

Configuring Windows Task Scheduler

Start by opening up Task Scheduler:

• Open Start Screen (Windows key) and type task scheduler
• Click Schedule tasks under Settings
• With the box open, go to Action tab and choose Create Basic Task

Give the task a Name, like “Daily script” and describe it under Description, example “Script to send to supervisor every day”. Click Next. On the next screen, set the frequency with which you’d like your script to run. In this case, we’ll set Daily and proceed with Next. Follow it up by choosing the number of times for operation. I’ll set it to 1.

After hitting Next, you should now be on Action screen. Enable Start a Program and enter the next job of setting up the task.

Here, enter the path for your SendEmail executable under Program/script and copy the comman-line command mentioned formerly (removing sendEmail) alongside Add arguments. In Start in, specify the SendEmail folder to look for SendEmail. Finish the scheduler once done.

When this task runs (set to every day), it fires off your message and follows the parameters you’ve defined above. What’s more? The receiver will have absolutely no idea whether the email is self-generated, or an automatic one. However, remember to make necessary updates before this email goes out. Rest will be taken care of by these powerful tools.

Start scheduling your email tasks now and dismiss the worry of sending another one of these updates to your boss. You can look as though you’re being extremely efficient, while simultaneously figure out what to do with the free time!