Basic Python scripting to open apps and websites
Table of contents
Introduction
On my journey I realized i get distracted when I turn on my PC, because I can easily do whatever I want. So i thought why not make my code editor,note taking app and the tutorial/course I'm watching open automatically when i login.
This brought me to python scripting so today I'm gonna show how i learned to use python scripting to open apps and websites on login.
For this we'll need a few libraries:-
AppOpener
webbrowser
Selenium
AppOpener
- We can install AppOpener using the following command
pip install AppOpener
For further information you can use the AppOpener documentation -
For our purpose we will be using the
open()
function from AppOpenerFirst we have to import open from AppOpener
from AppOpener import open
- Now we simply have to give the name of the app to be opened as an argument for open
open("Visual Studio Code")
open("Obsidian")
- This should open VS CODE and Obsidian when the script is run
Webbrowser
The webbrowser library comes with python so we don't have to install it again.
We have to first import the library into our script
import webbrowser
- I then store the url to be opened in a variable and give it as an arguement for
webbrowser.open()
url = "https://www.udemy.com/"
webbrowser.open(url)
Open on boot (Windows)
Yaay, now our scripts work BUT you dont expect me to manually run the script everytime right?
So let's automate it to run on login, there are many ways to do it here I'll be doing it using the startup folder.
Click
windows+R
to open up the run dialog box and type in the following
shell:startup
Now, we can place the python scripts in this folder.
Note: Make the default app used to open .py files the default python IDE
After this, when we login the python scripts run and do what their supposed to do.
This will cause the command prompt to open very briefly.
To stop the cmd opening we can change the extension of the script from .py to .pyw
Conclusion
So we made a script to open your favorite course and set up your workspace.
We even made these scripts run on boot.
Any suggestions and criticism is welcomed , As i still have a long way to go before i perfect the art of python scripting.