How to run script with elevated privilege on windows

Question

I am writing a pyqt application which require to execute admin task. I would prefer to start my script with elevate privilege. I am aware that this question is asked many times in SO or in other forum. But the solution people are suggesting is to have a look at this SO question Request UAC elevation from within a Python script?

However, I am unable to execute the sample code given in the link. I have put this code on top of the main file and tried to execute it.

import os
import sys
import win32com.shell.shell as shell
ASADMIN = 'asadmin'

if sys.argv[-1] != ASADMIN:
    script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
    params = ' '.join([script] + sys.argv[1:] + [ASADMIN])
    shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpVerb='runas', lpFile=sys.executable, lpParameters=params)
    sys.exit(0)
print "I am root now."

It actually ask permission to elevate but print line never get executed. Somebody can help me to run the above code successfully. Thanks in advance.

Solution 1

Thank you all for your reply. I have got my script working with the module/ script written by Preston Landers way back in 2010. After two days of browsing the internet I could find the script as it was was deeply hidden in pywin32 mailing list. With this script it is easier to check if the user is admin and if not then ask for UAC/ admin right. It does provide output in separate windows to find out what the code is doing. Example on how to use the code also included in the script. For the benefit of all who all are looking for UAC on windows have a look at this code. I hope it helps someone looking for same solution. It can be used something like this from your main script:-

import admin
if not admin.isUserAdmin():
        admin.runAsAdmin()

The actual code is:-

#!/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

# (C) COPYRIGHT © Preston Landers 2010
# Released under the same license as Python 2.6.5


import sys, os, traceback, types

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:\\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__":
    sys.exit(test())

Solution 2

in comments to the answer you took the code from someone says ShellExecuteEx doesn't post its STDOUT back to the originating shell. so you will not see "I am root now", even though the code is probably working fine.

instead of printing something, try writing to a file:

import os
import sys
import win32com.shell.shell as shell
ASADMIN = 'asadmin'

if sys.argv[-1] != ASADMIN:
    script = os.path.abspath(sys.argv[0])
    params = ' '.join([script] + sys.argv[1:] + [ASADMIN])
    shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpVerb='runas', lpFile=sys.executable, lpParameters=params)
    sys.exit(0)
with open("somefilename.txt", "w") as out:
    print >> out, "i am root"

and then look in the file.

Solution 3

I found a very easy solution to this problem.

1. Create a shortcut for python.exe
2. Change the shortcut target into something like C:\xxx\...\python.exe your_script.py
3. Click "advance..." in the property panel of the shortcut, and click the option "run as administrator"

I'm not sure whether the spells of these options are right, since I'm using Chinese version of Windows.

Solution 4

Here is a solution which needed ctypes module only. Support pyinstaller wrapped program.

#!python
# coding: utf-8
import sys
import ctypes

def run_as_admin(argv=None, debug=False):
    shell32 = ctypes.windll.shell32
    if argv is None and shell32.IsUserAnAdmin():
        return True

    if argv is None:
        argv = sys.argv
    if hasattr(sys, '_MEIPASS'):
        # Support pyinstaller wrapped program.
        arguments = map(unicode, argv[1:])
    else:
        arguments = map(unicode, argv)
    argument_line = u' '.join(arguments)
    executable = unicode(sys.executable)
    if debug:
        print 'Command line: ', executable, argument_line
    ret = shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, u"runas", executable, argument_line, None, 1)
    if int(ret) <= 32:
        return False
    return None


if __name__ == '__main__':
    ret = run_as_admin()
    if ret is True:
        print 'I have admin privilege.'
        raw_input('Press ENTER to exit.')
    elif ret is None:
        print 'I am elevating to admin privilege.'
        raw_input('Press ENTER to exit.')
    else:
        print 'Error(ret=%d): cannot elevate privilege.' % (ret, )

Solution 5

Here is a solution with an stdout redirection:

def elevate():
    import ctypes, win32com.shell.shell, win32event, win32process
    outpath = r'%s\%s.out' % (os.environ["TEMP"], os.path.basename(__file__))
    if ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin():
        if os.path.isfile(outpath):
            sys.stderr = sys.stdout = open(outpath, 'w', 0)
        return
    with open(outpath, 'w+', 0) as outfile:
        hProc = win32com.shell.shell.ShellExecuteEx(lpFile=sys.executable, \
            lpVerb='runas', lpParameters=' '.join(sys.argv), fMask=64, nShow=0)['hProcess']
        while True:
            hr = win32event.WaitForSingleObject(hProc, 40)
            while True:
                line = outfile.readline()
                if not line: break
                sys.stdout.write(line)
            if hr != 0x102: break
    os.remove(outpath)
    sys.stderr = ''
    sys.exit(win32process.GetExitCodeProcess(hProc))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    elevate()
    main()

View more solutions

Comments

[sundar_ima]

But it never bring up my pyqt window at all. Tested the code with ZetCode zetcode.com/gui/pyqt4/firstprograms

[Ecno92]

Thank you very much for this answer. I had the problem that my Qt GUI did not show up completely when it was executed with shellexecuteEX, your extensive command with the showcommand helped me to make it work. Thanks! :)

[frmdstryr]

Thank you,had to add the nShow and fMask params for it to work with a Qt gui.

[Elvis Teixeira]

Very good, I was trying to figure out how to do it right now to write a installer for my app.

[tomSurge]

Hello, it does ask for elevation, but once I click yes, the program for some odd reason runs twice. Any input on that?

[Mr_and_Mrs_D]

Can you post a link to in pywin32 mailing list the code comes from ??

[sundar_ima]

This question/answer was posted almost 3 years back. Now I really don't have the link..

[David Callanan]

how to not have an extra empty console? is this possible? thanks

[BuvinJ]

It runs twice because the first time it's launching a new instance of the program as an admin. You need to exit the program if his function doesn't return True. Or, you might change this a bit to launch a different program, using this one just a "launch pad".

[deenbandhu]

but this prompt for permission. Is there any way i can skip that

[Niklas R]

Thank you! Is there a way to get the new process' output in the original terminal and not open an additional window?

[Hrvoje T]

Here is the same script forked on github for python3 gist.github.com/sylvainpelissier/…

[Anonymous]

How can I run the elevated process as another detached process so that the orignal program can quit?

[takanuva15]

@HrvojeT thank you for that! It took me ages to figure out how to run python processes as admin

[Deepak Yadav]

The way could also be explained as : Run your python as admin then execute the scripts. Then automatically all the scripts would have the admin access.

[Mark Ransom]

@deenbandhu if you could skip the prompt, every virus ever written would do that and you'd be constantly infected. That's a feature that's never going to go away.

[CircleOnCircles]

This resulted in an error, python 3.8 ``` File ".\main.py", line 26, in elevate with open(outpath, 'w+', 0) as outfile: ValueError: can't have unbuffered text I/O```