[python-win32] Querying the VNC Service fails sometimes

[Roger Upole]

Mike Driscoll wrote:
> Mike Driscoll wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> In one of my login scripts for work, I run a query to see if the VNC
>> service is running using the win32serviceutil module. The code for
>> that I am using looks something like this:
>>
>> <code>
>> import win32serviceutil
>> serviceState = win32serviceutil.QueryServiceStatus('VNC Server')[1]
>> </code>
>>
>> This works in 99.99% of cases. However, I have on user that keeps
>> getting the following traceback:
>>
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>  File "\\ourServer\pathName\PostLogon.py", line 207, in ?
>>    serviceState = win32serviceutil.QueryServiceStatus('VNC Server')[1]
>>  File
>> "\\ourServer\pathName\Python24\lib\site-packages\win32\lib\win32serviceutil.py",
>> line 479, in QueryServiceStatus
>>    hs = SmartOpenService(hscm, serviceName,
>> win32service.SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS)
>>  File
>> "\\ourServer\pathName\Python24\lib\site-packages\win32\lib\win32serviceutil.py",
>> line 81, in SmartOpenService
>>    name = _GetServiceShortName(name)
>>  File
>> "\\ourServer\pathName\Python24\lib\site-packages\win32\lib\win32serviceutil.py",
>> line 62, in _GetServiceShortName
>>    skey = win32api.RegOpenKey(hkey, svc, 0, access)
>> error: (2, 'RegOpenKeyEx', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')
>>
>>
>> I used regmon to try and figure out what part of the Registry my code
>> looks at and it appears to be looking for the "DisplayName" value in
>> HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\winvnc
>>
>> I cannot see a difference in this user's registry versus my own, which
>> does not have this issue. However, I can duplicate the error by
>> connecting to the user's PC's registry using the _winreg module and
>> querying the "DisplayName" value, like this:
>>
>> QueryValue(key, 'DisplayName')
>>
>> Which give me this traceback:
>>
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>>  File "<pyshell#14>", line 1, in <module>
>>    QueryValue(key, 'DisplayName')
>> WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified
>>
>> But if I use use _winreg's EnumValue, I get this:
>>
>>>>> EnumValue(key, 4)
>> ('DisplayName', u'VNC Server', 1)
>>
>> What the!? Does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe a better way to get
>> the information? I only need to know if the service is running or not,
>> and if not, to start it.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>
> I forgot to mention that we use Windows XP, Python 2.4 and PyWin32
> version 210.
>
> Mike

You might want to try build 211.  It uses the API function
GetServiceKeyName instead of manually enumerating the
registry.

However, it sounds like you could have a corrupt registry key.
Try reinstalling the service and see if that helps.

         Roger