[python-win32] Have icon overlays persist after machine restart in Python
Alexander Jewell
balexjewell at gmail.com
Tue Jan 12 14:09:19 EST 2016
I should have checked the setup file before attaching, that's actually from
a third test I ran that tried running an EXE.
In my earlier test I had create_dll = True.
During that test I ran "regsvr32 overlays.dll" (with terminal running as
Administrator) and got a success message, but no registry entries were
added and none of the logging present in the class was triggered, so it
didn't run the main method in the provided script or instantiate the class.
Am I mistaken in thinking that regsvr32 of the DLL replaces the use of
win32com.server.register.UseCommandLine? Do I actually need both?
So I would need to:
Run the python script which writes the overlay handler GUID to the registry
and calls win32com.server.register.UseCommandLine
Run (with elevated privileges) regsvr32 to register the DLL
Restart explorer.exe process so that Explorer picks up the overlays
Is this correct?
If so, I would have to ship both the script and the DLL build from the
script, which shouldn't be a problem; I guess I just assumed that having
two copies of the same code was incorrect.
Thanks for bearing with me
Alex
On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 5:43 PM, Mark Hammond <mhammond at skippinet.com.au>
wrote:
> setup_2.py has:
>
> > setup(console=['overlays.py'])
>
> So that's going to create a console program with no COM support. setup.py
> has:
>
> > # specify which type of com server you want (exe and/or dll)
> > create_exe=True,
> > create_dll=False
>
> So you are only going to get a COM object that can be created as a .exe.
> Explorer wants only inproc objects (ie, those hosted in a DLL), so you want
> create_dll=True and create_exe=False - you should then get a DLL you can
> register with regsvr32.
>
> HTH,
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> On 12/01/2016 4:44 AM, Alexander Jewell wrote:
>
>> Hi Mark,
>>
>> I followed your suggestion and the SO threads touching on this area.
>> (
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4619701/python-64-bit-dll-com-server-registration-problem-on-64-bit-windows-7
>> )
>> Using py2exe I generated a dist folder with an exe of my overlay script.
>> Running this on a machine without Python installed shows all of the
>> proper log messages being generated and registry entry created for my
>> overlay handler, however there's no indication that explorer is loading
>> and running the overlay handler.
>>
>> Following the SO examples I instead generated a COM DLL from the same
>> source. I can copy this dist directory and new DLL over to a machine
>> without Python and use regsrv32 to register the DLL without errors, but
>> it doesn't run the main method which is what sets the required registry
>> entries and calls UseCommandLine so it doesn't look like it's being
>> registered correctly at all.
>>
>> Sorry for the newb questions, but I seem to have a big gap in my
>> understanding of the mechanism.
>>
>> So, the way that I'm using it at least, py2exe is either generating an
>> EXE that will register correctly but not provide a COM object with the
>> correct environment for explorer to run the overlay handler, or a DLL
>> that should be self contained and functional but not provide the
>> registration functionality.
>>
>> I've attached my primary script (Overlay Handler + logging and some
>> helper objects) as well as 2 py2exe setup scripts I've tried.
>>
>> I'm hoping you can point out a huge flaw in my thinking, or an obvious
>> step that I'm missing in the registration process.
>>
>> Thanks again for any help you can provide.
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 3:30 PM, Alexander Jewell <balexjewell at gmail.com
>> <mailto:balexjewell at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> I created a fresh Python 2.7 environment with pywin and py2exe and
>> stripped down my overlay handler to the basics to better troubleshoot.
>>
>> Running my script (command line or in PyCharm) registers everything
>> correctly, just like before, but running the py2exe generated EXE
>> seems to be registering but no overlays are appearing, which looks
>> just like what happens when I restarted explorer.exe in my previous
>> attempt (logged messages during registration, plus a manual check of
>> the registry look good but nothing generated by IsMemberOf.
>>
>> I'm going to try generating a DLL and manually registering following
>> the example
>> here:
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4619701/python-64-bit-dll-com-server-registration-problem-on-64-bit-windows-7
>>
>> It looks like this example came out of a mail thread with you back
>> in 2011 so I'll try to follow the advice there and report back.
>>
>> Thanks again for the help Mark.
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 7:19 PM, Mark Hammond
>> <mhammond at skippinet.com.au <mailto:mhammond at skippinet.com.au>> wrote:
>>
>> On 7/01/2016 6:21 AM, Alexander Jewell wrote:
>>
>> Unfortunately my end goal was to bundle the entire
>> application as an exe
>> with PyInstaller so that the end user does not actually have
>> Python
>> installed.
>>
>> Do you think it would be possible to package the overlay
>> handler in such
>> a way that explorer would not need access to an installed
>> Python
>> interpreter?
>> Embedding(
>> https://docs.python.org/3.4/extending/embedding.html)
>> seems
>> to still require a Python interpreter but Cython sounds
>> promising.
>>
>>
>> I've used py2exe for this in the past and it works fine - you
>> need to end up with a stand-alone directory that functions
>> independently of any installed Python - py2exe bundles Python
>> itself, pywin32, etc in just this way. Last I tried though, it
>> only worked with python 2.x
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>> -Alex
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 5:37 AM, Mark Hammond
>> <skippy.hammond at gmail.com <mailto:skippy.hammond at gmail.com>
>> <mailto:skippy.hammond at gmail.com
>>
>> <mailto:skippy.hammond at gmail.com>>> wrote:
>>
>> My guess is that the environment (eg, PATH, PYTHONPATH
>> etc) for the
>> new explorer instance isn't setup correctly - how is the
>> explorer.exe process started when it *does* work? It's
>> hard to
>> answer without more info, but Python ends up inside
>> explorer.exe, so
>> the environment that explorer.exe starts with is
>> important.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> On 6/01/2016 8:29 AM, Alexander Jewell wrote:
>>
>> So, thanks to the Tim Golden guide
>>
>> <
>> http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_how_do_i/add-my-own-icon-overlays.html
>> >
>>
>> (
>> http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_how_do_i/add-my-own-icon-overlays.html
>> )
>> and
>> other questions
>>
>> <
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4775020/icon-overlay-issue-with-python#
>> >
>> on
>> Stack Overflow I have a script that will show
>> overlays on files and
>> folders based on their "state" similar to Tortoise
>> SVN or
>> Dropbox. Works
>> great.
>>
>> My problem is that once I restart the explorer.exe
>> process or the OS
>> itself and open explorer there are no longer any
>> overlays.
>>
>> My first thought:
>>
>> * Have the service that actually manages file
>> state detect that no
>> requests have come in and just re-register the
>> overlay handler
>>
>> The problem here is that registration requires
>> elevated permissions
>> which is acceptable on initial install of the
>> application by the end
>> user but not every time they restart their machine.
>>
>> Can anyone suggest what I might be missing here? I
>> have the class
>> BaseOverlay and its children in a single .py file
>> and register
>> from my
>> main app by calling this script using subprocess.
>>
>>
>>
>> |subprocess.check_call("C:\scripts\register_overlays.py",shell=True)|
>>
>> Is Explorer not able to re-load the script as it is
>> Python? Do I
>> need to
>> compile into a DLL or EXE? Would that change the
>> registration
>> process?
>>
>> Here's the registration call:
>>
>> |win32com.server.register.UseCommandLine(BaseOverlay)|
>>
>> Here's the class(simplified):
>>
>> |classBaseOverlay:_reg_clsid_
>> ='{8D4B1C5D-F8AC-4FDA-961F-A0143CD97C41}'_reg_progid_
>> ='someoverlays'_reg_desc_ ='Icon Overlay
>> Handler'_public_methods_
>>
>> =['GetOverlayInfo','GetPriority','IsMemberOf']_com_interfaces_
>>
>>
>> =[shell.IID_IShellIconOverlayIdentifier]defGetOverlayInfo(self):returnicon_path,0,shellcon.ISIOI_ICONFILE
>>
>>
>> defGetPriority(self):return50defIsMemberOf(self,fname,attributes):returnwinerror.S_OK|
>>
>> Thanks for any help you can provide,
>>
>> Alex Jewell
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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