Python Cookbook

Checking and Modifying the Set of Tasks Windows Automatically Runs at Logon

Credit: Daniel Kinnaer

Problem

You need to check which tasks Windows is set to automatically run at logon and possibly change these tasks.

Solution

When administering Windows machines, it’s crucial to keep track of the tasks each machine runs at logon. Like so many Windows tasks, this requires working with the registry, and standard Python module _winreg enables this:

from _winreg import *

aReg = ConnectRegistry(None, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE)

try:
    targ = r'SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'
    print "*** Reading from", targ, "***"
    aKey = OpenKey(aReg, targ)
    try:
        for i in range(1024):
            try:
                n, v, t = EnumValue(aKey, i)
                print i, n, v, t
            except EnvironmentError:
                print "You have", i, "tasks starting at logon"
                break
    finally:
        CloseKey(aKey)

    print "*** Writing to", targ, "***"
    aKey = OpenKey(aReg, targ, 0, KEY_WRITE)
    try:
        try:
            SetValueEx(aKey, "MyNewKey", 0, REG_SZ, r"c:\winnt\explorer.exe")
        except EnvironmentError:
            print "Encountered problems writing into the Registry..."
            raise
    finally:
        CloseKey(aKey)
finally:
    CloseKey(aReg)

Discussion

The Windows registry holds a wealth of crucial system-administration data, and the Python standard module _winreg makes it feasible to read and alter data held in the registry. One of the items held in the Windows registry is a list of tasks to be run at logon. This recipe shows how to examine this list and how to add a task to the list so it is run at logon.

If you want to remove ...