ok here is the deal... I figured out how to pass the variable but now messages are not popping up on the windows screen if I use this method: import os Computerlist = ['PC1', 'PC2', 'PC3', 'PC4', 'PC5'] for ComputerName in Computerlist: print ComputerName s = "net send %s" % ComputerName os.system('s "Message"')