pyuac - elevate a Python process with UAC on Windows

pyuac.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8; mode: python; py-indent-offset: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil -*-
# vim: fileencoding=utf-8 tabstop=4 expandtab shiftwidth=4

"""
THIS CODE IS OUTDATED! Please use this instead:

https://pypi.org/project/pyuac/
https://github.com/Preston-Landers/pyuac


-- old comments follow:

User Access Control for Microsoft Windows Vista and higher.  This is
only for the Windows platform.

This will relaunch either the current script - with all the same command
line parameters - or else you can provide a different script/program to
run.  If the current user doesn't normally have admin rights, he'll be
prompted for an admin password. Otherwise he just gets the UAC prompt.

Note that the prompt may simply shows a generic python.exe with "Publisher:
Unknown" if the python.exe is not signed.

This is meant to be used something like this::

    if not pyuac.isUserAdmin():
        return pyuac.runAsAdmin()

    # otherwise carry on doing whatever...

See L{runAsAdmin} for the main interface.

"""

import sys, os, traceback, types

def isUserAdmin():
    """@return: True if the current user is an 'Admin' whatever that
    means (root on Unix), otherwise False.

    Warning: The inner function fails unless you have Windows XP SP2 or
    higher. The failure causes a traceback to be printed and this
    function to return False.
    """
    
    if os.name == 'nt':
        import ctypes
        # WARNING: requires Windows XP SP2 or higher!
        try:
            return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
        except:
            traceback.print_exc()
            print "Admin check failed, assuming not an admin."
            return False
    else:
        # Check for root on Posix
        return os.getuid() == 0

def runAsAdmin(cmdLine=None, wait=True):
    """Attempt to relaunch the current script as an admin using the same
    command line parameters.  Pass cmdLine in to override and set a new
    command.  It must be a list of [command, arg1, arg2...] format.

    Set wait to False to avoid waiting for the sub-process to finish. You
    will not be able to fetch the exit code of the process if wait is
    False.

    Returns the sub-process return code, unless wait is False in which
    case it returns None.

    @WARNING: this function only works on Windows.
    """

    if os.name != 'nt':
        raise RuntimeError, "This function is only implemented on Windows."
    
    import win32api, win32con, win32event, win32process
    from win32com.shell.shell import ShellExecuteEx
    from win32com.shell import shellcon
    
    python_exe = sys.executable

    if cmdLine is None:
        cmdLine = [python_exe] + sys.argv
    elif type(cmdLine) not in (types.TupleType,types.ListType):
        raise ValueError, "cmdLine is not a sequence."
    cmd = '"%s"' % (cmdLine[0],)
    # XXX TODO: isn't there a function or something we can call to massage command line params?
    params = " ".join(['"%s"' % (x,) for x in cmdLine[1:]])
    cmdDir = ''
    showCmd = win32con.SW_SHOWNORMAL
    lpVerb = 'runas'  # causes UAC elevation prompt.
    
    # print "Running", cmd, params

    # ShellExecute() doesn't seem to allow us to fetch the PID or handle
    # of the process, so we can't get anything useful from it. Therefore
    # the more complex ShellExecuteEx() must be used.

    # procHandle = win32api.ShellExecute(0, lpVerb, cmd, params, cmdDir, showCmd)

    procInfo = ShellExecuteEx(nShow=showCmd,
                              fMask=shellcon.SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS,
                              lpVerb=lpVerb,
                              lpFile=cmd,
                              lpParameters=params)

    if wait:
        procHandle = procInfo['hProcess']    
        obj = win32event.WaitForSingleObject(procHandle, win32event.INFINITE)
        rc = win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(procHandle)
        #print "Process handle %s returned code %s" % (procHandle, rc)
    else:
        rc = None

    return rc

def test():
    """A simple test function; check if we're admin, and if not relaunch
    the script as admin.""",
    rc = 0
    if not isUserAdmin():
        print "You're not an admin.", os.getpid(), "params: ", sys.argv
        #rc = runAsAdmin(["c:\\Windows\\notepad.exe"])
        rc = runAsAdmin()
    else:
        print "You are an admin!", os.getpid(), "params: ", sys.argv
        rc = 0
    x = raw_input('Press Enter to exit.')
    return rc


if __name__ == "__main__":
    res = test()
    sys.exit(res)

Hi,
If you are using Python 3, you need to make few changes:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8; mode: python; py-indent-offset: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil -*-
# vim: fileencoding=utf-8 tabstop=4 expandtab shiftwidth=4

"""User Access Control for Microsoft Windows Vista and higher.  This is
only for the Windows platform.

This will relaunch either the current script - with all the same command
line parameters - or else you can provide a different script/program to
run.  If the current user doesn't normally have admin rights, he'll be
prompted for an admin password. Otherwise he just gets the UAC prompt.

Note that the prompt may simply shows a generic python.exe with "Publisher:
Unknown" if the python.exe is not signed.

This is meant to be used something like this::

    if not pyuac.isUserAdmin():
        return pyuac.runAsAdmin()

    # otherwise carry on doing whatever...

See L{runAsAdmin} for the main interface.

"""

import sys, os, traceback, types

def isUserAdmin():
    """@return: True if the current user is an 'Admin' whatever that
    means (root on Unix), otherwise False.

    Warning: The inner function fails unless you have Windows XP SP2 or
    higher. The failure causes a traceback to be printed and this
    function to return False.
    """
    
    if os.name == 'nt':
        import win32security
        # WARNING: requires Windows XP SP2 or higher!
        try:
            adminSid = win32security.CreateWellKnownSid(win32security.WinBuiltinAdministratorsSid, None)
            return win32security.CheckTokenMembership(None, adminSid)
        except:
            traceback.print_exc()
            print("Admin check failed, assuming not an admin.")
            return False
    else:
        # Check for root on Posix
        return os.getuid() == 0

def runAsAdmin(cmdLine=None, wait=True):
    """Attempt to relaunch the current script as an admin using the same
    command line parameters.  Pass cmdLine in to override and set a new
    command.  It must be a list of [command, arg1, arg2...] format.

    Set wait to False to avoid waiting for the sub-process to finish. You
    will not be able to fetch the exit code of the process if wait is
    False.

    Returns the sub-process return code, unless wait is False in which
    case it returns None.

    @WARNING: this function only works on Windows.
    """

    if os.name != 'nt':
        raise RuntimeError("This function is only implemented on Windows.")
    
    import win32api, win32con, win32event, win32process
    from win32com.shell.shell import ShellExecuteEx
    from win32com.shell import shellcon
    
    python_exe = sys.executable

    if cmdLine is None:
        cmdLine = [python_exe] + sys.argv
    elif type(cmdLine) not in (types.TupleType,types.ListType):
        raise ValueError("cmdLine is not a sequence.")
    cmd = '"%s"' % (cmdLine[0],)
    # XXX TODO: isn't there a function or something we can call to massage command line params?
    params = " ".join(['"%s"' % (x,) for x in cmdLine[1:]])
    cmdDir = ''
    showCmd = win32con.SW_SHOWNORMAL
    lpVerb = 'runas'  # causes UAC elevation prompt.
    
    # print "Running", cmd, params

    # ShellExecute() doesn't seem to allow us to fetch the PID or handle
    # of the process, so we can't get anything useful from it. Therefore
    # the more complex ShellExecuteEx() must be used.

    # procHandle = win32api.ShellExecute(0, lpVerb, cmd, params, cmdDir, showCmd)

    procInfo = ShellExecuteEx(nShow=showCmd,
                              fMask=shellcon.SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS,
                              lpVerb=lpVerb,
                              lpFile=cmd,
                              lpParameters=params)

    if wait:
        procHandle = procInfo['hProcess']    
        obj = win32event.WaitForSingleObject(procHandle, win32event.INFINITE)
        rc = win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(procHandle)
        #print "Process handle %s returned code %s" % (procHandle, rc)
    else:
        rc = None

    return rc

def test():
    """A simple test function; check if we're admin, and if not relaunch
    the script as admin.""",
    rc = 0
    if not isUserAdmin():
        print("You're not an admin.", os.getpid(), "params: ", sys.argv)
        #rc = runAsAdmin(["c:\\Windows\\notepad.exe"])
        rc = runAsAdmin()
    else:
        print("You are an admin!", os.getpid(), "params: ", sys.argv)
        rc = 0
    x = input('Press Enter to exit.')
    return rc


if __name__ == "__main__":
    res = test()
    sys.exit(res)

Would you mind adding a license and maybe putting it in a repository? I'd appreciate that very much 😀
I seem to be hitting some corner cases during debugging and maybe could improve a bit.

Hi, I want to launch an application using python in admin mode and do some automation activity in that using pywinauto and pyautogui. But with this script I am not able to proceed, it would be great if anyone can provide any leads on that.

Here I have to open the application in admin mode and open the File menu -> load a file in that and proceed, all these I am not able to do.

The application I am using is developed using C#, WPF with C++ and Java Libraries.

Following is my code with a sample application :

import sys, os, traceback, types, time
from pywinauto.keyboard import send_keys
from pywinauto.application import Application
import pywinauto.controls.uia_controls
from pywinauto import mouse
import win32api
import time
import os
import pyautogui
import pywinauto
import tkinter as tk
from pywinauto import application


def isUserAdmin():

    if os.name == 'nt':
        import ctypes
        # WARNING: requires Windows XP SP2 or higher!
        try:
            return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
        except:
            traceback.print_exc()
            print "Admin check failed, assuming not an admin."
            return False
    elif os.name == 'posix':
        # Check for root on Posix
        return os.getuid() == 0
    else:
        raise RuntimeError, "Unsupported operating system for this module: %s" % (os.name,)

def runAsAdmin(cmdLine=None, wait=True):

    if os.name != 'nt':
        raise RuntimeError, "This function is only implemented on Windows."

    import win32api, win32con, win32event, win32process
    from win32com.shell.shell import ShellExecuteEx
    from win32com.shell import shellcon

    python_exe = sys.executable

    if cmdLine is None:
        cmdLine = [python_exe] + sys.argv
    elif type(cmdLine) not in (types.TupleType,types.ListType):
        raise ValueError, "cmdLine is not a sequence."
    cmd = '"%s"' % (cmdLine[0],)
    # XXX TODO: isn't there a function or something we can call to massage command line params?
    params = " ".join(['"%s"' % (x,) for x in cmdLine[1:]])
    cmdDir = ''
    showCmd = win32con.SW_SHOWNORMAL
    #showCmd = win32con.SW_HIDE
    lpVerb = 'runas'  # causes UAC elevation prompt.

    # print "Running", cmd, params

    # ShellExecute() doesn't seem to allow us to fetch the PID or handle
    # of the process, so we can't get anything useful from it. Therefore
    # the more complex ShellExecuteEx() must be used.

    # procHandle = win32api.ShellExecute(0, lpVerb, cmd, params, cmdDir, showCmd)

    procInfo = ShellExecuteEx(nShow=showCmd,
                              fMask=shellcon.SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS,
                              lpVerb=lpVerb,
                              lpFile=cmd,
                              lpParameters=params)

    if wait:
        procHandle = procInfo['hProcess']
        obj = win32event.WaitForSingleObject(procHandle, win32event.INFINITE)
        rc = win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(procHandle)
        #print "Process handle %s returned code %s" % (procHandle, rc)
    else:
        rc = None

    return rc

def test():
    rc = 0
    if not isUserAdmin():
        print "You're not an admin.", os.getpid(), "params: ", sys.argv
        rc = runAsAdmin(["C:\Program Files\Notepad\notepad++.exe"])
        time.sleep(40)
        pywinauto.mouse.click(button='left', coords=(1199, 478))
        app1 = rc['notepad++']
        pywinauto.mouse.click(button='left', coords=(42, 33))
        time.sleep(20)
        print(pyautogui.position())

        rc = runAsAdmin()
    else:
        print "You are an admin!", os.getpid(), "params: ", sys.argv
        rc = 0
    x = raw_input('Press Enter to exit.')
    return rc


if __name__ == "__main__":
    sys.exit(test())

Forgive me for my ignorant answer, but I can't make it work. What I want to do is run command netsh interface set interface ethernet disabled and this command need to run as administrador, and I found this gist and copied the code in a file named admin.py and in a second file file-cmd.py I writed:

import admin

if not admin.isUserAdmin():
    admin.runAsAdmin("netsh interface set interface ethernet disabled")

but returns module 'types' has no attribute 'TupleType' then tried

import admin

tup = ("netsh interface set interface ethernet disabled")
if not admin.isUserAdmin():
    admin.runAsAdmin(tup)

Same error. So how does it works? Forgive me, still learning python

@thewasta - I wrote this code ages ago for an old version of Python. I'm sure it needs some updates to run under modern Python. The error you're running into is one of those.

Given that there's still interest in this code I may look into turning it into an official package and fixing it for modern Python. However I can't give you a timeline on that. It could be weeks.

On that specific line that is failing, you might try changing it to this:

# OLD
elif type(cmdLine) not in (types.TupleType,types.ListType):

# NEW
elif type(cmdLine) not in (tuple, list):

However you may still run into other problems after that.

@thewatsa - actually see @golflima version above that has been fixed for Python 3. I'm still planning to publish an updated version on PyPI at some point.

Hi everyone! I've cleaned up this code and packaged it into a library you can install with pip install pyuac.
It also fixes some bugs around command line handling.

https://pypi.org/project/pyuac/
https://github.com/Preston-Landers/pyuac

@hstock @thewasta @AndCycle - see the updated version linked above. You can install it with pip now. I'm curious if it works for you.

@Preston-Landers thanks for the work, haven't tried that yet, there could be some handling or log around failed to execute as Admin, hInstApp hold those info.

@AndCycle I'm not sure I follow. This uses PyWin32's wrapper around ShellExecuteEx. That way that is structured, we only get access to hInstApp in the success case. In the failure case it raises pywintypes.error. For instance, if you deny the UAC prompt, the script gets a catchable exception like:

pywintypes.error: (1223, 'ShellExecuteEx', 'The operation was canceled by the user.')

You're welcome to open an issue in the new Github project. Thanks.