Get memory usage of computer in Windows with Python

Question

How can I tell what the computer's overall memory usage is from Python, running on Windows XP?

score 23 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 25 '12 at 16:32

23

You can also just call GlobalMemoryStatusEx() (or any other kernel32 or user32 export) directly from python:

import ctypes

class MEMORYSTATUSEX(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("dwLength", ctypes.c_ulong),
        ("dwMemoryLoad", ctypes.c_ulong),
        ("ullTotalPhys", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
        ("ullAvailPhys", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
        ("ullTotalPageFile", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
        ("ullAvailPageFile", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
        ("ullTotalVirtual", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
        ("ullAvailVirtual", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
        ("sullAvailExtendedVirtual", ctypes.c_ulonglong),
    ]

    def __init__(self):
        # have to initialize this to the size of MEMORYSTATUSEX
        self.dwLength = ctypes.sizeof(self)
        super(MEMORYSTATUSEX, self).__init__()

stat = MEMORYSTATUSEX()
ctypes.windll.kernel32.GlobalMemoryStatusEx(ctypes.byref(stat))

print("MemoryLoad: %d%%" % (stat.dwMemoryLoad))

Not necessarily as useful as WMI in this case, but definitely a nice trick to have in your back pocket.

edited Sep 25 '12 at 16:32

phobie

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answered Jan 07 '10 at 01:42

Seth

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This one was awesome, had no idea you could do this in Windows. – Anders Jun 11 '10 at 07:54
That's a return in __init__? Why would you do that? – Arafangion Dec 15 '11 at 03:00
The super call can be omitted because dwLength has been initialized before and the other _fields_ does not need to be initialized. – phobie Sep 25 '12 at 16:33
if i import `ctype` in unix, the `dir(ctype)` wouldn't have the `ctype.windll`, is that right? – alvas Sep 24 '13 at 09:18

Michael Greene · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-07T01:35:58.220

13

You'll want to use the wmi module. Something like this:

import wmi
comp = wmi.WMI()

for i in comp.Win32_ComputerSystem():
   print i.TotalPhysicalMemory, "bytes of physical memory"

for os in comp.Win32_OperatingSystem():
   print os.FreePhysicalMemory, "bytes of available memory"

edited Jan 07 '10 at 01:35

answered Jan 07 '10 at 01:27

Michael Greene

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+1. It will be trivial to change this to fetch the correct data. – Skurmedel Jan 07 '10 at 01:30
@NigelHeffernan The existing answer already uses Win32_OperatingSystem to access FreePhysicalMemory. – Michael Greene Feb 05 '18 at 20:25
Thanks Michael - I should either drink more coffee or go home – Nigel Heffernan Feb 05 '18 at 20:34

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 07 '10 at 01:29

0

You can query the performance counters in WMI. I've done something similar but with disk space instead.

A very useful link is the Python WMI Tutorial by Tim Golden.

answered Jan 07 '10 at 01:29

Skurmedel

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Get memory usage of computer in Windows with Python

3 Answers3

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