Skip to main content

Interacting With System Applications Through OS Module In Python

 As we all know, Operating System (OS) is a program that acts as an interface between computer hardware and user. Python has a standard utility module called "os module" to achieve a process of communicating directly to the operating system of your device.

Installation

The os module is one of the standard libraries in Python 3, so it doesn't need to be installed manually or externally. It comes along with the installation of Python. So it is mandatory to import this os module before using it in your program as it is not a built-in function.

Importing module

The os module can be used in a program by importing it initially. It is mandatory to import the os module as it is not a built-in function to use it without any importation.
To import the os module, use the command as
import os

Built-in functions inside os module

There are a bunch of built-in functions present inside the os module where one can invoke each function after the module gets imported inside a program. 
To know about the list of built-in functions inside the os module, specify the code as
dir(os)
Here comes the list of built-in functions inside the os module,
List of built-in functions inside the os module

OS interacts with system application

To make the Operating System of your device interact with applications installed on your device, follow the syntax in command prompt as
os.system("application_name")
This os.system( )  function executes a command in a subshell, it has the same limitations as a system() in Standard C function as it implements the same. os.system( ) can be used only on Windows and Unix.

Code snippets to open system applications

Here are some python codes to open system applications on your device,

Notepad

To open notepad specify,
os.system("notepad")
This single line of code specified above will open the notepad immediately.

Notepad gets opened

Google Chrome

To open Google Chrome specify,
os.system("chrome")
This will open Google Chrome on your device

Google Chrome gets opened

File Explorer

In the same way, to open File Explorer on your device specify,
os.system("explorer")

File Explorer gets opened

Microsoft Edge

To open Microsoft Edge on your device, specify the code as
os.system("msedge")

Microsoft Edge gets launched

Internet Explorer

To open Internet Explorer on your device, make sure to type your code as
os.system("iexplore")

Internet Explorer gets launched

Windows Media Player

In the same way, try Windows media player to get opened by specifying,
os.system("wmplayer")

Windows Media Player gets launched

Microsoft PowerPoint

To launch Microsoft PowerPoint use the command as 
os.system("POWERPNT")

MS PowerPoint gets launched
Note:
The application_name must be the same as specified in the location where it is installed.
For example, MS Word is specified as "WINWORD" inside C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14.
Thus use os.system("WINWORD") as a command in your program, so that MS Word will launch immediately. If the code doesn't work, then copy the path of the application where it is installed and change the environment variable of that application with the path copied.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Easy Way To Build An Audiobook Using Python

  An audiobook is nothing but a book that was recorded in an audio format. It can also be stated as a book that is being read aloud. Audiobook helps in improvising one's vocabulary, comprehension and pronunciation of words. Hope some of you guys are bookaholic but lazy to read it on your own. So it's time to create your own audiobook by using few codes of Python. This will definitely make you enjoy audiobooks without any subscription fee, that was imposed on platforms like Audible, Scribd, etc. Prerequisite Python has a huge number of modules that contains reusable code which performs desired functions when invoked. It must be installed into your system before using its functionalities. So here we going to grab just 2 modules from a bunch of python modules prevailing around. Install PyPDF2 module, using                     pip install PyPDF2 Install pyttsx3 module, using                     pip install pyttsx3 PyPDF2 module It is one of the Pure-Python libraries that runs on an

How to Create A Voice Recorder Using Python

  A voice recorder records a sound or a voice of a person and converts it into an audio file. The file can be stored in different audio formats like MP3 format, Waveform Audio File (WAV), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF), etc. and later it can be transferred to other devices. Any device that is capable of recording a sound or a voice is said to be a voice recorder by default. In this article, you will learn to build a voice recorder with a few lines of code in Python. Where do We Use Voice Recorder? Some of the applications of a voice recorder are listed below: Interviews Handling Meetings Lectures/Seminars in Educational Institutions Audiobooks for kids Learning foreign languages Translating a word to another language Google search by voice A quick voice message to a person instead of typing Podcasts Voice assistants like Google assistants, Alexa, Siri, etc., Essentials The first and foremost thing needed to build a voice recorder using Python is two b