pyuac - elevate a Python process with UAC on Windows compatible Python 3.

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

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

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

@darkcicada23 You should not have to touch anything in the site-packages folder. If you installed pywin32 with pip into a virtual environment, anything installed with pip will automatically be included in the python import path. If importing is not working with simply the below, then your python environment is not setup correctly.

# your_file.py
# This is all you need to make this stuff available in your python script:
import win32api, win32con, win32event, win32process
from win32com.shell.shell import ShellExecuteEx
from win32com.shell import shellcon

If you want to try the examply file posted in this gist called pyuac.py (outside of pycharm), the below will work:

mkdir my-folder
cd my-folder
python -m venv venv
./venv/Scripts/activate
pip install pywin32
python ./pyuac.py

If you have issues with pywin32 try asking on their mailing-list