Occasionally you will need to know what version of software you are using. The normal way to find this information out is usually done by opening the program, going to its Help menu and clicking the About menu item. But this is a Python blog and we want to do it programmatically! To do that […]
PyWin32: How to Get an Application’s Version Number Read More »
A couple of months ago at work, we received a report that a file was locked. The dialog that appeared showed the initials of a user who wasn’t even working for us any more. Thus we discovered an annoying bug that can crop up with Office. Basically, a user is asked by Word or Excel
Python: Changing Microsoft Office User Initials Read More »
The other day, I was tasked with finding a way to get a list of all running processes on a Windows XP virtual machine. I was also supposed to include information about how much CPU and memory each process used. Fortunately, this didn’t have to be a remote script, but one that could be run
How to Find and List All Running Processes with Python Read More »
After about a year or so at my current job, as we were still working on upgrading the last few Windows 98 machines to Windows XP, we had a need to check which machines on our network were getting low on disk space. The issue was cropping up because we had Windows XP loaded on
Getting Remote Drive Space on Windows Read More »
The other day, there was a post on one of the mailing lists that I follow about accessing the Windows Event Logs. I thought that was an interesting topic, so I went looking for examples and found a pretty nice example on ActiveState. In this article, you’ll find out what I discovered.
PyWin32: Getting Windows Event Logs Read More »
Last year I needed to figure out a way to get the following information with Python: get the route table, capture the data from pinging a series of IPs, run tracert and get information about the NIC(s) installed. This all needed to be done on a Windows machine as it was part of a diagnostics
Python: Running Ping, Traceroute and More Read More »
Have you ever wanted to restart your Windows PC with out pressing Start, Shutdown or CTRL+ALT+DEL? What about restarting your annoying co-worker’s PC…the one who just doesn’t know when to shut up? Well, Python has the answer and this blog will tell you how to do it!
Restarting PCs with Python Read More »
Python’s standard library is known for including lots of handy modules and packages that can be used without installing anything else. That’s one of the primary reasons that its standard library is called “batteries included” so often. So it should come as no surprise that Python includes a Windows only module for editing the Windows
Python’s _winreg: Editing the Windows Registry Read More »
This week I was tasked with trying to find a way to find out what the Peak Commit value was on our virtual workstations. The reason being that we are trying to save money and were wondering if we were allocating too much memory or not. We didn’t need the Total Commit Charge or the
Python: Finding the Commit Charge Values in Windows Read More »
Back when I first wrote about creating shortcuts with Python last month, I kept thinking to myself that I had a 3rd way of doing it. Today, I had to maintain some of my shortcut code and I stumbled upon it once more. I also noticed that my post had received a comment from Tim
Creating Windows Shortcuts with Python (Part II) Read More »
I do a fair amount of technical support in addition to my software development. In our small shop, we get to troubleshoot anything that is related to technology, from networks to software to printers. I think one of the most annoying aspects is trying to get printers to work the way the user wants. Another
Python, Windows and Printers Read More »
Roaming Profiles are a blessing and a curse. If the user uses the internet, their browser’s cached files will grow like mad. If the user downloads programs to their desktop or creates large Powerpoint files anywhere in their profile, then they have to be managed whenever the user logs in or out. There are several
Using Python to Reduce the Roaming Profile Read More »
A few months ago, my employer needed to lock down some of our workstations to be compliant with some new software we were installing from another government organization. We needed to force those machines to lock after so many minutes elapsed and we needed to make it such that the user could not change those
Enabling Screen Locking with Python Read More »
Almost four years ago, I was tasked with converting a Kixtart script to Python. This particular script was used to lock down Windows XP machines so they could be used as kiosks. Obviously, you don’t need Python to do this. Any programming language that can access the Windows Registry will be able to do this
Lock Down Windows with Python Read More »