pywinauto: Does not work with Win10 Calculator

Under Windows 10, sending keys to the calculator does not work:

>>> import pywinauto
>>> app = pywinauto.Application().start("calc.exe")
>>> app.Window
<pywinauto.application.WindowSpecification object at 0x00000000024B2860>
>>> app.process
5900
>>> app.Window.TypeKeys("2*3=")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 252, in __getattr__
    ctrls = _resolve_control(self.criteria)
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 758, in _resolve_control
    raise e.original_exception
pywinauto.findbestmatch.MatchError: Could not find 'Window' in '[]'
>>> app.Calculator.TypeKeys("2*3=")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 252, in __getattr__
    ctrls = _resolve_control(self.criteria)
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 758, in _resolve_control
    raise e.original_exception
pywinauto.findbestmatch.MatchError: Could not find 'Calculator' in '[]'

If I use Task Manager, the Calculator pid is 1940 and not 5900.There is not process with pid 5900.

I think this is causing it to find no windows that belong to this app (it filters by process id first).

On the other hand, Notepad works:

>>> app = pywinauto.Application().start("notepad.exe")
>>> app.process
6600
>>> app.Notepad.TypeKeys("2*3=")
<pywinauto.controls.win32_controls.DialogWrapper object at 0x0000000002B22668>

It does type into notepad.

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 8 years ago
Comments: 22 (13 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

The problem is not only in minimized state, but I can reproduce it in UIA very easy:

app = Application(backend="win32").connect(title="Calculator")
app.Calculator.minimize()
app.Calculator.type_keys('2*3=')

while without app.Calculator.minimize() it works.

vasily-v-ryabov on Oct 9, 2016

Thanks! Connecting to calc.exe fails:

>>> app.connect(path='calc.exe')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 829, in connect
    self.process = process_from_module(kwargs['path'])
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 1266, in process_from_module
    raise ProcessNotFoundError(message)
pywinauto.application.ProcessNotFoundError: Could not find any process with a module of 'calc.exe'

Connecting to calc seems to work at connecting, but sending keys does not work:

>>> app.connect(path='calc')
<pywinauto.application.Application object at 0x0000000002337550>
>>> app.Window.TypeKeys("2*3=")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 252, in __getattr__
    ctrls = _resolve_control(self.criteria)
  File "C:\Users\marcio\git\webdriver-python\env\lib\site-packages\pywinauto\application.py", line 758, in _resolve_control
    raise e.original_exception
pywinauto.findbestmatch.MatchError: Could not find 'Window' in '[]'

By title works! But I have to use app.Calculator and not app.Window:

>>> app.Calculator.TypeKeys("2*3=")
<pywinauto.controls.win32_controls.DialogWrapper object at 0x0000000002584080>

I will take a look at the UIA stuff, thanks!

Question: I want to have a utility function to do the work, so app.Calculator does not fly for me. How can I do the same but passing “Calculator” as parameter? Do I have to call findbestmatch directly or is there a nicer way? Thanks!

sglebs on Jul 7, 2016