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Check if windows 10 system needs a restart after automatic update using python

I have a bunch of python script that run on a scheduled basis in a windows 10 based system, sometimes after windows 10 automatic update, the OS will ask for a restart to finish the update and after some time it would restart automatically if not done manually which might mess with automated python script runs.
I am looking for a pythonic solution where I would query the OS if it needs a restart and upon getting the appropriate response I would trigger the appropriate solution
import necessary_libraries
isRestartRequired = check_if_restart_is_needed() // returns true or false
if isRestartRequired == True:
notifyUser()
Is this programmatically possible with python?

The following seems to work for me:
Install the PowerShell script Reboot pending:
Install-Module -Name PendingReboot
Check it works in Powershell:
Test-Pending Reboot
Call it from python using:
import subprocess
def restart_needed()->bool:
"""Uses Windows Powershell tool to figure out if a windows
reboot is pending. True indicates one is due."""
cmd:list[str]=["powershell","-Command","Test-PendingReboot"]
res:bytes=subprocess.run(cmd,capture_output=True)
output_text:str=res.stdout.decode("utf-8").strip()
restart:bool=output_text.endswith("True")
return restart

I personally don't think there is a dedicated library for that. I also don't think you should check that for updates individually, as that will likely require searching for the information about each and every update online (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/308547/how-to-know-if-a-windows-update-will-require-a-reb.html).
So you'll likely have to figure out a way how to determine whether Windows is going to reboot or not, and then manually perform that check (by running a system command or utility) in Python. Now your question sounds more like "Which mechanisms Windows use to reboot the machine during the update, and how to check whether any of them is invoked". Please note that there might be a bunch of such mechanisms, and they are most probably undocumented and may change in future. You can learn the basics on MS website, but they don't provide good amount of details there (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/how-windows-update-works).
You can check the list of possible reboot status locations in How can I check for a pending reboot? (it looks quite promising), and implement these checks in Python afterwards using some function that allows you to check the output (Running shell command and capturing the output).
If you decide to use that approach, please capture a PC that requires a reboot and verify that one of the 4 sources mentioned in the answer indeed contains the reboot flag. I did it for my laptop yesterday - it was pending reboot, and some entries indeed contained that marker. Make sure you check that for your infrastructure as well.
P.S. If you have full control upon your entire infrastructure, you might look into PowerShell Gallery PendingReboot module mentioned in the referenced SO post (if it's installed on the machine, you can use just one command instead of four), or make yourself familiar with brilliant (and completely useless probably) opinion of MSDN guy https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20151203-00/?p=92261 : In this specific case, the idea would be to change the design from “Install the update, and then postpone the reboot until a convenient time” to “Wait for a convenient time, then install the update and reboot immediately.”

PIP installed items don't want to work in Windows 10

I'm lost with Python. After troubleshooting with a friend through Discord for literally months I am about to give up. This is my last attempt at trying to get Python fixed on my Windows 10 laptop.
I'm using a Lenovo Legion 5, bought the laptop in November 2020. I've not been able to get anything related to Python to run in the CMD window. I can run Python no problem, but nothing I have installed through pip has ever worked. I can use virtualenvs, but only through PyCharm for example. Python has never really worked through the command line.
Yes I tried reopening the CMD window, rebooted the system many times, ran the CMD as administrator, installed the path variables for both Python and esptool.py but nothing seems to help.
I honestly don't know where to start because none of the 250+ websites I've visited to so far that suggested a fix for any kind of issue I've been experiencing with Python has been working. I can run Python fine by the way, just none of the things installed through pip will work.
Let's start with a use-case:
I'm trying to run esptool.py so installed it with pip install esptool. This install worked fine, and I can confirm it is installed with pip show -f esptool.
However, when running esptool.py version it told me:
'esptool.py' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
So I added the local folder from the previous step to the %PATH% variables, after running esptool.py version it gave me a popup asking me with what kind of program I should open this, I didn't select to open with this kind of program from now on. This makes it so that I do not get an error, what now happens is that another window quickly opens and then exits without an error code. So I have no clue what's happening.
What should happen is that it should tell me which version is installed in the CMD window.
There have been a few other things going on with my Windows 10 install, for one, the username that I used during the installation wasn't used to create the user directory. Windows 10 somehow instead chose a name that was related to the first 5 characters of my email address, which is totally strange as I haven't used that string in the installation of Windows 10 at all. This was a fresh install on a new laptop.
Now, after an update of Win10 my user icon doesn't display anymore and I had to change ownership of the 'Windows Apps' folder in order to be able to access it. Changing the ownership also changed the name I now see on the login screen when I boot up the laptop. It changed from the 5 first chars of my email address to my full name in the login screen, only because I took ownership of this folder so I could access it.
There have been a lot of things going on that I think should not be changing all the time, things to do with administrator rights, ownership, etc.
Now, since opening esptool.py doesn't open it, but also doesn't show me an error, I'm clueless and the only thing I can think of is doing a fresh system install, but I have a bunch of projects going on for which I need this laptop in working order and I don't have the mental health (due to corona) left to do a fresh system install. I'm worn down. Not in a dramatic way, I just don't have the spare energy to go through the whole process. So I'm hoping someone can point me in the right way to troubleshoot why my Python doesn't want to work natively.
What happens when running esptool.py version is that I can see it opens a Python window, but without showing any content it closes within a few milliseconds.
What is going on, how do I continue? I hope someone knows how to troubleshoot my system, to find the core of the problem.

It apparently was rather simple. First of all, thanks for the replies! And second of all, thanks for pointing me to superuser.com I wasn't aware of the site and will continue there.
The fix was to use python -m pip install esptool as suggested by Valentin Kuhn.
To answer AKD, I have a lot of experience with programming on my MacBook, but I'm not experienced with actually maintaining the system side, I'm a creative user. It's just that ever since I got a Windows laptop it's been nothing but trouble and after months of chatting about each individual issue with people on Discord nobody has been able to find a solution. I'm not expecting a GUI, just a simple "esptool.py v3.0" was the answer I was expecting from the command line.
Now what I don't understand is that I've never found any hint to anyone suggesting python -m. I will get on superuser to find out more about why the standard instructions that work for most people, don't work for me.
Sorry for using the wrong site for my question, I came on here through another related question and it was past my bedtime and I wasn't thinking clear.

python symlink in windows 10 creators update

Since the windows 10 creator update, you can enable developer mode to circumvent administrator privileges when creating a symlink. Now, I was able to create a symlink using mklink like this:
os.system('mklink %s %s' %(dst, src))
Hopefully it's obvious that dst is the destination symlink path, and src is the source file for the symlink. While it seems to work ok, it doesn't error if it fails which makes it a little more difficult to ensure each symlink is successful. I can check if the path exists after each symlink, but that's less efficient than a try/except clause. There's also what looks like a command shell window(?) that pops up and closes quickly every time - and that's really annoying when you're symlinking a lot of files...
So, I've been trying other options I've found on stack overflow like this one: How to create symlinks in windows using Python? Unfortunately, the CreateSymbolicLinkW command doesn't seem to work for me... I also found this: OS.symlink support in windows where it appears you need to adjust the group policy editor; however, it apparently still requires users in the administrator group to run the process as an administrator even if you explicitly set that user with symlink privileges.
With the windows 10 creator update, there's mention of a new dwflag in the CreateSymbolicLink api (SYMBOLIC_LINK_FLAG_ALLOW_UNPRIVILEGED_CREATE) you can see the reference for that here: symlinks windows 10
Using the ctypes stuff is a bit over my head, so I'm wondering if anyone knows: Can I actually use that new dwflag? How do I use it? Will it work without running the process as administrator?
I use Autodesk Maya, so I'm stuck with python 2.7 options... I have not tried launching Maya as an administrator so I don't know if that will work, but it seems like a rather annoying hoop to jump through even if it does... I appreciate any assistance you can give

it doesn't error if it fails
os.system will return the exit status of the call. It does not raise an exception.
If you look at the docs for os.system, they recommend using the subprocess module. In fact, subprocess.check_call does what you describe (raise an exception on a non-zero exit status). Perhaps that would work better.
On the other hand, the command mklink will return a zero exit status even if the source does not exist (it will create a link to non-existent file and return 0). You might want to validate the actual link as you mentioned, depending on what errors you are trying to find.
As far as hiding the console window, see this.

os.symlink works out of the box since python 3.8 on windows, as long as Developer Mode is turned on.
Not sure whether this will help with Maya; they seem to have committed to Python 3 though.

IDLE's subprocess didn't make a connection. Either IDLE can't start or personal firewall software is blocking connection

I have tried uninstalling it and have searched other answers. None of them have worked; IDLE opens, but I can't run anything I write.

In Windows 10
1. Type in "Controlled folder Access"
2. Select "Allow an app through Controlled folder access" Select yes to "UAC"
3. Click on "+ Add an allowed app"
4. Select "recently blocked apps"
5. Find the executable for the C:\Python27
6. Click the + to add it.
7. Select Close
Then try running the Python Shell again. This worked for me 100%
Also, add exception through Windows Firewall Python27 select Private and Public.

This question has been asked before. Based on previous answers, I compiled a list of possible causes and solution on CPython tracker issue 25514, post of 2016-01-18.
SO question 1 Causes people have found or think they have found.
Antivirus/firewall (4 people, linux iptables, Windows firewall, antivisus , so not a myth ;-)
Shadow files, as described [in the issue], and in the python directory (about as common; example user file names: tkinter,py, subprocess.py).
Registry problem (some people can fix, but most should re-install after complete removal).
Zombie pythonw process (kill with Windows Task manager).
Permissions (run as admin, though should not be needed with proper install)
?Multiple installed versions clash due to misconfiguration?
SO question 2 Add:
Running after stopping run with ^C (temporary, I believe Restart Shell will fix) Call this a timing issue. I have experienced temporary connection failures myself.
Modem reboot (rather obsolete answer for most of us).
?example program that reads and writes (test)
Someone somewhere reported that his problem was with network misconfiguration that affected the operation of the socket module that IDLE uses.
Last resort: start IDLE with -n command line option, as described in IDLE doc.

If you at the network environment then check on the secure Group (SG), to see if the user is listed under that group.
else as other had been suggested you have to have the (right click on the program the login as Admin right to enable the IDLE to run.

IDLE's subprocess didn't make a connection. Either IDLE can't start or a personal firewall software is blocking the connection.
Having had this problem myself I did an uninstall and created a new directory in the C drive and reinstalled in that folder, which worked for me.

First uninstall the application.Then reinstall it BUT at the time of reinstallation try -n at the end of location adress. It worked for me, you can copy the below text and paste it at the location while installing it.
“C:\Program Files\Python32\pythonw.exe” lib\idlelib\idle.py -n

Create python script that runs at startup [closed]

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, visit the help center.
Closed 10 years ago.
Background
I need to create a python script that runs at start-up. The problem is that this script must be platform independent because it will be used on different operating systems. It needs to be an automatic set up because it will be run by the user and so I won't be able to set task schedulers up on each individual machine.
Questions
How to find out which OS a computer is running on in Python?
How to make a script run at startup (Linux, Mac OSX, Windows)

Question 1 is easy:
How to find out which OS a computer is running on in Python?
That's sys.platform:
if sys.platform.startswith('win') or sys.platform.startswith('cygwin'):
do_windows_stuff()
elif sys.platform.startswith('darwin'):
do_osx_stuff()
elif sys.platform.startswith('linux'):
do_linux_stuff()
else:
raise Exception("Nobody's written the stuff for {}, sorry".format(sys.platform))
The second part is also easy, but not in the way you wanted to hear:
How to make a script run at startup (Linux, Mac OSX, Windows)
You don't. Not from within the script. You use some kind of installer (or package postflight script, or whatever).
Adding things that run at startup requires root/admin rights. Your script (hopefully) is not running with such rights. Therefore, it can't do it. Yes, it's possible to elevate privileges in various ways, but that almost certainly isn't what you want to do inside a script that's going to end up running at startup.
So, how does your installer do it then?
OS X: You need to create a Launch Daemon, with an accompanying launchd plist. This is described in Creating Launch Daemons and Agents. You shouldn't be trying to do this if you haven't read that article, and you'll already know how if you have read that article, so there's not much else to say.
Windows: The official way to do this is explained in Run and RunOnce Registry Keys. Again, you shouldn't do this without reading this article, and after reading the article it's pretty obvious, except for two things: First, out of the four keys, it's the HKLM Run key. Second, in modern Windows, this doesn't actually run at startup, but at the first login after startup; if that's not acceptable, look into RunServices instead.
Linux: What's an installer? And were you expecting one way to do it for every distro family? This primer gives you most of the information you need, except for knowing exactly what you want to do on each distro. In general, if you just want your script to run once and quit, and there's an rc.local.d, and you just need to drop a link in there. Otherwise, you either need to create an rc.d script, install it to the right place, and run the right chkconfig command, or you need to edit rc.local to run your script. But the simplest thing is: just put English text in the INSTALL file telling people to do it. Eventually, when someone decides to make a DEB for Ubuntu or an RPM for Redhat or whatever, they'll do the right thing for their distro, and either submit a patch to you or maintain it separately.