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Open installed apps on Windows intelligently

I am coding a voice assistant to automate my pc which is running Windows 11 and I want to open apps using voice commands, I don't want to hard code every installed app's .exe path. Is there any way to get a dictionary of the app's name and their .exe path. I am able to get currently running apps and close them using this:
def close_app(app_name):
running_apps=psutil.process_iter(['pid','name'])
found=False
for app in running_apps:
sys_app=app.info.get('name').split('.')[0].lower()
if sys_app in app_name.split() or app_name in sys_app:
pid=app.info.get('pid')
try:
app_pid = psutil.Process(pid)
app_pid.terminate()
found=True
except: pass
else: pass
if not found:
print(app_name + " is not running")
else:
print('Closed ' + app_name)

Possibly using both wmic and use either which or gmc to grab the path and build the dict?
Following is a very basic code, not tested completely.
import subprocess
import shutil
Data = subprocess.check_output(['wmic', 'product', 'get', 'name'])
a = str(Data)
appsDict = {}
x = (a.replace("b\\'Name","").split("\\r\\r\\n"))
for i in range(len(x) - 1):
appName = x[i+1].rstrip()
appPath = shutil.which(appName)
appsDict.update({appName: appPath})
print(appsDict)

Under Windows PowerShell there is a Get-Command utility. Finding Windows executables using Get-Command is described nicely in this issue. Essentially it's just running
Get-Command *
Now you need to use this from python to get the results of command as a variable. This can be done by
import subprocess
data = subprocess.check_output(['Get-Command', '*'])
Probably this is not the best, and not a complete answer, but maybe it's a useful idea.

This can be accomplished via the following code:
import os
def searchfiles(extension, folder):
with open(extension[1:] + "file.txt", "w", encoding="utf-8") as filewrite:
for r, d, f in os.walk(folder):
for file in f:
if file.endswith(extension):
filewrite.write(f"{r + file}\n")
searchfiles('.exe', 'H:\\')
Inspired from: https://pythonprogramming.altervista.org/find-all-the-files-on-your-computer/

How do I check if an application is installed in windows using Python

I am trying to create a program that installs an application on Windows if it is not already installed. I know the file name of the executable but nothing else about it. I want to query the OS to check whether an application of known name or file name is installed on said OS.
All I have so far is the following:
def IsProgramInstalled(ProgramName):
"""Check whether ProgramName is installed."""
If anyone has the answer to this, it would be much appreciated as I can't find it anywhere.

You can check if a program is installed with shutil:
import shutil
def is_program_installed(program_name):
"""Check whether program_name is installed."""
return shutil.which(program_name)
If the program is installed the function will return the path to the program,if the program isn't installed the function will return None.
In my case if I would like to know if git is installed I will get:
git = is_program_installed("git")
print(git)
# Returns: /usr/bin/git
In windows it should return something like:
C:\Program Files\Git\bin\git.exe

Might be late but i found an answer based on List of installed programs as answers regarding which dont work for user installed programs or programs not in PATH.
import winreg, win32con
def foo(hive, flag):
aReg = winreg.ConnectRegistry(None, hive)
aKey = winreg.OpenKey(aReg, r"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall", 0, win32con.KEY_READ | flag)
count_subkey = winreg.QueryInfoKey(aKey)[0]
arr = []
for i in range(count_subkey):
try:
asubkey_name = winreg.EnumKey(aKey, i)
asubkey = winreg.OpenKey(aKey, asubkey_name)
arr.append([winreg.QueryValueEx(asubkey, "DisplayName")[0], winreg.QueryValueEx(asubkey, "UninstallString")[0]] )
except EnvironmentError:
continue
return arr
x = foo(win32con.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, win32con.KEY_WOW64_32KEY)
y = foo(win32con.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, win32con.KEY_WOW64_64KEY)
z = foo(win32con.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, 0)
That will give you a list of installed programs as a list you can search print([x for x in x+y+z if "My Application Name" in x])
However that does not tell you where it is located.
def bar(hive, flag):
aReg = winreg.ConnectRegistry(None, hive)
aKey = winreg.OpenKey(aReg, r'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Folders', 0, win32con.KEY_READ | flag)
count_subkey = winreg.QueryInfoKey(aKey)
arr = []
for i in range(count_subkey[1]):
try:
arr.append(winreg.EnumValue(aKey, i)[0])
except EnvironmentError:
continue
return arr
w = bar(win32con.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, win32con.KEY_WOW64_64KEY)
That will give you a list of install folders and subfolders which you can easily search through print('\n'.join(x for x in [x for x in w if "My Application Name" in x]))

As I have tried with a different approach using Python Module winapps. Code snippet at the below.
import winapps
def chk_app_inst(str):
for item in winapps.list_installed():
app_name = str
if app_name in item.name:
get_path = item.install_location
get_uninstall_str = item.uninstall_string
print('App path found:\t', get_path, '\nAlternative Path:\t', get_uninstall_str.replace('uninstall.exe', ''))
So after using this code, at least I can have both ways of getting Installed application's executable file.
Kindly let me know if this solution is usable.
Thanks in advance,

How to create symlinks in windows using Python?

I am trying to create symlinks using Python on Windows 8. I found This Post and this is part of my script.
import os
link_dst = unicode(os.path.join(style_path, album_path))
link_src = unicode(album_path)
kdll = ctypes.windll.LoadLibrary("kernel32.dll")
kdll.CreateSymbolicLinkW(link_dst, link_src, 1)
Firstly, It can create symlinks only when it is executed through administrator cmd. Why is that happening?
Secondly, When I am trying to open those symlinks from windows explorer I get This Error:
...Directory is not accessible. The Name Of The File Cannot Be Resolved By The System.
Is there a better way of creating symlinks using Python? If not, How can I solve this?
EDIT
This is the for loop in album_linker:
def album_Linker(album_path, album_Genre, album_Style):
genre_basedir = "E:\Music\#02.Genre"
artist_basedir = "E:\Music\#03.Artist"
release_data_basedir = "E:\Music\#04.ReleaseDate"
for genre in os.listdir(genre_basedir):
genre_path = os.path.join(genre_basedir, "_" + album_Genre)
if not os.path.isdir(genre_path):
os.mkdir(genre_path)
album_Style_list = album_Style.split(', ')
print album_Style_list
for style in album_Style_list:
style_path = os.path.join(genre_path, "_" + style)
if not os.path.isdir(style_path):
os.mkdir(style_path)
album_path_list = album_path.split("_")
print album_path_list
#link_dst = unicode(os.path.join(style_path, album_path_list[2] + "_" + album_path_list[1] + "_" + album_path_list[0]))
link_dst = unicode(os.path.join(style_path, album_path))
link_src = unicode(album_path)
kdll = ctypes.windll.LoadLibrary("kernel32.dll")
kdll.CreateSymbolicLinkW(link_dst, link_src, 1)
It takes album_Genre and album_Style And then It creates directories under E:\Music\#02.Genre . It also takes album_path from the main body of the script. This album_path is the path of directory which i want to create the symlink under E:\Music\#02.Genre\Genre\Style . So album_path is a variable taken from another for loop in the main body of the script
for label in os.listdir(basedir):
label_path = os.path.join(basedir, label)
for album in os.listdir(label_path):
album_path = os.path.join(label_path, album)
if not os.path.isdir(album_path):
# Not A Directory
continue
else:
# Is A Directory
os.mkdir(os.path.join(album_path + ".copy"))
# Let Us Count
j = 1
z = 0
# Change Directory
os.chdir(album_path)

Firstly, It can create symlinks only when it is executed through administrator cmd.
Users need "Create symbolic links" rights to create a symlink. By default, normal users don't have it but administrator does. One way to change that is with the security policy editor. Open a command prompt as administrator, run secpol.msc and then go to Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignment\Create symbolic links to make the change.
Secondly, When I am trying to open those symlinks from windows explorer I get This Error:
You aren't escaping the backslashes in the file name. Just by adding an "r" to the front for a raw string, the file name changes. You are setting a non-existant file name and so explorer can't find it.
>>> link_dst1 = "E:\Music\#02.Genre_Electronic_Bass Music\1-800Dinosaur-1-800-001_[JamesBlake-Voyeur(Dub)AndHolyGhost]_2013-05-00"
>>> link_dst2 = r"E:\Music\#02.Genre_Electronic_Bass Music\1-800Dinosaur-1-800-001_[JamesBlake-Voyeur(Dub)AndHolyGhost]_2013-05-00"
>>> link_dst1 == link_dst2
False
>>> print link_dst1
E:\Music\#02.Genre_Electronic_Bass Music☺-800Dinosaur-1-800-001_[JamesBlake-Voyeur(Dub)AndHolyGhost]_2013-05-00

os.symlink works out of the box since python 3.8 on windows, as long as Developer Mode is turned on.

If you're just trying to create a link to a directory, you could also create a "Junction", no admin privileges required:
import os
import _winapi
src_dir = "C:/Users/joe/Desktop/my_existing_folder"
dst_dir = "C:/Users/joe/Desktop/generated_link"
src_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.realpath(src_dir))
dst_dir = os.path.normpath(os.path.realpath(dst_dir))
if not os.path.exists(dst_dir):
os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(dst_dir), exist_ok=True)
_winapi.CreateJunction(src_dir, dst_dir)

Get total length of videos in a particular directory in python

I have downloaded a bunch of videos from coursera.org and have them stored in one particular folder. There are many individual videos in a particular folder (Coursera breaks a lecture into multiple short videos). I would like to have a python script which gives the combined length of all the videos in a particular directory. The video files are .mp4 format.

First, install the ffprobe command (it's part of FFmpeg) with
sudo apt install ffmpeg
then use subprocess.run() to run this bash command:
ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 -- <filename>
(which I got from http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/FFprobeTips#Formatcontainerduration), like this:
from pathlib import Path
import subprocess
def video_length_seconds(filename):
result = subprocess.run(
[
"ffprobe",
"-v",
"error",
"-show_entries",
"format=duration",
"-of",
"default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1",
"--",
filename,
],
capture_output=True,
text=True,
)
try:
return float(result.stdout)
except ValueError:
raise ValueError(result.stderr.rstrip("\n"))
# a single video
video_length_seconds('your_video.webm')
# all mp4 files in the current directory (seconds)
print(sum(video_length_seconds(f) for f in Path(".").glob("*.mp4")))
# all mp4 files in the current directory and all its subdirectories
# `rglob` instead of `glob`
print(sum(video_length_seconds(f) for f in Path(".").rglob("*.mp4")))
# all files in the current directory
print(sum(video_length_seconds(f) for f in Path(".").iterdir() if f.is_file()))
This code requires Python 3.7+ because that's when text= and capture_output= were added to subprocess.run. If you're using an older Python version, check the edit history of this answer.

Download MediaInfo and install it (don't install the bundled adware)
Go to the MediaInfo source downloads and in the "Source code, All included" row, choose the link next to "libmediainfo"
Find MediaInfoDLL3.py in the downloaded archive and extract it anywhere.
Example location: libmediainfo_0.7.62_AllInclusive.7z\MediaInfoLib\Source\MediaInfoDLL\MediaInfoDLL3.py
Now make a script for testing (sources below) in the same directory.
Execute the script.
MediaInfo works on POSIX too. The only difference is that an so is loaded instead of a DLL.
Test script (Python 3!)
import os
os.chdir(os.environ["PROGRAMFILES"] + "\\mediainfo")
from MediaInfoDLL3 import MediaInfo, Stream
MI = MediaInfo()
def get_lengths_in_milliseconds_of_directory(prefix):
for f in os.listdir(prefix):
MI.Open(prefix + f)
duration_string = MI.Get(Stream.Video, 0, "Duration")
try:
duration = int(duration_string)
yield duration
print("{} is {} milliseconds long".format(f, duration))
except ValueError:
print("{} ain't no media file!".format(f))
MI.Close()
print(sum(get_lengths_in_milliseconds_of_directory(os.environ["windir"] + "\\Performance\\WinSAT\\"
)), "milliseconds of content in total")

In addition to Janus Troelsen's answer above, I would like to point out a small problem I
encountered when implementing his answer. I followed his instructions one by one but had different results on windows (7) and linux (ubuntu). His instructions worked perfectly under linux but I had to do a small hack to get it to work on windows. I am using a 32-bit python 2.7.2 interpreter on windows so I utilized MediaInfoDLL.py. But that was not enough to get it to work for me I was receiving this error at this point in the process:
"WindowsError: [Error 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application".
This meant that I was somehow using a resource that was not 32-bit, it had to be the DLL MediaInfoDLL.py was loading. If you look at the MediaInfo intallation directory you will see 3 dlls MediaInfo.dll is 64-bit while MediaInfo_i386.dll is 32-bit. MediaInfo_i386.dll is the one which I had to use because of my python setup. I went to
MediaInfoDLL.py (which I already had included in my project) and changed this line:
MediaInfoDLL_Handler = windll.MediaInfo
to
MediaInfoDLL_Handler = WinDLL("C:\Program Files (x86)\MediaInfo\MediaInfo_i386.dll")
I didn't have to change anything for it to work in linux

Nowadays pymediainfo is available, so Janus Troelsen's answer could be simplified.
You need to install MediaInfo and pip install pymediainfo. Then the following code would print you the total length of all video files:
import os
from pymediainfo import MediaInfo
def get_track_len(file_path):
media_info = MediaInfo.parse(file_path)
for track in media_info.tracks:
if track.track_type == "Video":
return int(track.duration)
return 0
print(sum(get_track_len(f) for f in os.listdir('directory with video files')))

This link shows how to get the length of a video file https://stackoverflow.com/a/3844467/735204
import subprocess
def getLength(filename):
result = subprocess.Popen(["ffprobe", filename],
stdout = subprocess.PIPE, stderr = subprocess.STDOUT)
return [x for x in result.stdout.readlines() if "Duration" in x]
If you're using that function, you can then wrap it up with something like
import os
for f in os.listdir('.'):
print "%s: %s" % (f, getLength(f))

Here's my take. I did this on Windows. I took the answer from Federico above, and changed the python program a little bit to traverse a tree of folders with video files. So you need to go above to see Federico's answer, to install MediaInfo and to pip install pymediainfo, and then write this program, summarize.py:
import os
import sys
from pymediainfo import MediaInfo
number_of_video_files = 0
def get_alternate_len(media_info):
myJson = media_info.to_data()
myArray = myJson['tracks']
for track in myArray:
if track['track_type'] == 'General' or track['track_type'] == 'Video':
if 'duration' in track:
return int(track['duration'] / 1000)
return 0
def get_track_len(file_path):
global number_of_video_files
media_info = MediaInfo.parse(file_path)
for track in media_info.tracks:
if track.track_type == "Video":
number_of_video_files += 1
if type(track.duration) == int:
len_in_sec = int(track.duration / 1000)
elif type(track.duration) == str:
len_in_sec = int(float(track.duration) / 1000)
else:
len_in_sec = get_alternate_len(media_info)
if len_in_sec == 0:
print("File path = " + file_path + ", problem in type of track.duration")
return len_in_sec
return 0
sum_in_secs = 0.0
os.chdir(sys.argv[1])
for root, dirs, files in os.walk("."):
for name in files:
sum_in_secs += get_track_len(os.path.join(root, name))
hours = int(sum_in_secs / 3600)
remain = sum_in_secs - hours * 3600
minutes = int(remain / 60)
seconds = remain - minutes * 60
print("Directory: " + sys.argv[1])
print("Total number of video files is " + str(number_of_video_files))
print("Length: %d:%02d:%02d" % (hours, minutes, seconds))
Run it: python summarize.py <DirPath>
Have fun. I found I have about 1800 hours of videos waiting for me to have some free time. Yeah sure

Determine if an executable (or library) is 32 -or 64-bits (on Windows)

I am trying to find out if a given executable (or library) is compiled for 32-bits or 64-bits from Python. I am running Vista 64-bits and would like to determine if a certain application in a directory is compiled for 32-bits or 64-bits.
Is there a simple way to do this using only the standard Python libraries (currently using 2.5.4)?

The Windows API for this is GetBinaryType. You can call this from Python using pywin32:
import win32file
type=GetBinaryType("myfile.exe")
if type==win32file.SCS_32BIT_BINARY:
print "32 bit"
# And so on
If you want to do this without pywin32, you'll have to read the PE header yourself. Here's an example in C#, and here's a quick port to Python:
import struct
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_I386=332
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_IA64=512
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_AMD64=34404
f=open("c:\windows\explorer.exe", "rb")
s=f.read(2)
if s!="MZ":
print "Not an EXE file"
else:
f.seek(60)
s=f.read(4)
header_offset=struct.unpack("<L", s)[0]
f.seek(header_offset+4)
s=f.read(2)
machine=struct.unpack("<H", s)[0]
if machine==IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_I386:
print "IA-32 (32-bit x86)"
elif machine==IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_IA64:
print "IA-64 (Itanium)"
elif machine==IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_AMD64:
print "AMD64 (64-bit x86)"
else:
print "Unknown architecture"
f.close()

If you're running Python 2.5 or later on Windows, you could also use the Windows API without pywin32 by using ctypes.
from ctypes import windll, POINTER
from ctypes.wintypes import LPWSTR, DWORD, BOOL
SCS_32BIT_BINARY = 0 # A 32-bit Windows-based application
SCS_64BIT_BINARY = 6 # A 64-bit Windows-based application
SCS_DOS_BINARY = 1 # An MS-DOS-based application
SCS_OS216_BINARY = 5 # A 16-bit OS/2-based application
SCS_PIF_BINARY = 3 # A PIF file that executes an MS-DOS-based application
SCS_POSIX_BINARY = 4 # A POSIX-based application
SCS_WOW_BINARY = 2 # A 16-bit Windows-based application
_GetBinaryType = windll.kernel32.GetBinaryTypeW
_GetBinaryType.argtypes = (LPWSTR, POINTER(DWORD))
_GetBinaryType.restype = BOOL
def GetBinaryType(filepath):
res = DWORD()
handle_nonzero_success(_GetBinaryType(filepath, res))
return res
Then use GetBinaryType just like you would with win32file.GetBinaryType.
Note, you would have to implement handle_nonzero_success, which basically throws an exception if the return value is 0.

I've edited Martin B's answer to work with Python 3, added with statements and ARM/ARM64 support:
import struct
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_I386 = 332
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_IA64 = 512
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_AMD64 = 34404
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_ARM = 452
IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_AARCH64 = 43620
with open('foo.exe', 'rb') as f:
s = f.read(2)
if s != b'MZ':
print('Not an EXE file')
else:
f.seek(60)
s = f.read(4)
header_offset = struct.unpack('<L', s)[0]
f.seek(header_offset + 4)
s = f.read(2)
machine = struct.unpack('<H', s)[0]
if machine == IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_I386:
print('IA-32 (32-bit x86)')
elif machine == IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_IA64:
print('IA-64 (Itanium)')
elif machine == IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_AMD64:
print('AMD64 (64-bit x86)')
elif machine == IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_ARM:
print('ARM eabi (32-bit)')
elif machine == IMAGE_FILE_MACHINE_AARCH64:
print('AArch64 (ARM-64, 64-bit)')
else:
print(f'Unknown architecture {machine}')

I was able to use Martin B's answer successfully in a Python 3.5 program after making this adjustment:
s=f.read(2).decode(encoding="utf-8", errors="strict")
Originally it worked just fine with my program in Python 2.7, but after making other necessary changes, I discovered I was getting b'MZ', and decoding it appears to fix this.

Using Python 3.7, 32 bit on 64 bit Win 7, the first code fragment in the top answer doesn't run for me. It fails because GetBinaryType is an unknown symbol. Solution is to use win32file.GetBinaryType.
Also running it on a .pyd file doesn't work, even if it is renamed to a .dll. See next:
import shutil
import win32file
from pathlib import Path
myDir = Path("C:\\Users\\rdboylan\\AppData\\Roaming\\Python\\Python37\\site-packages\\pythonwin")
for fn in ("Pythonwin.exe", "win32ui.pyd"):
print(fn, end=": ")
myf = myDir / fn
if myf.suffix == ".pyd":
mytemp = myf.with_suffix(".dll")
if mytemp.exists():
raise "Can not create temporary dll since {} exists".format(mytemp)
shutil.copyfile(myf, mytemp)
type = win32file.GetBinaryType(str(mytemp))
mytemp.unlink()
else:
type=win32file.GetBinaryType(str(myf))
if type==win32file.SCS_32BIT_BINARY:
print("32 bit")
else:
print("Something else")
# And so on
Results in
Pythonwin.exe: 32 bit
win32ui.pyd: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:/Users/rdboylan/Documents/Wk devel/bitness.py", line 14, in <module>
type = win32file.GetBinaryType(str(mytemp))
pywintypes.error: (193, 'GetBinaryType', '%1 is not a valid Win32 application.')