How to open and close File Explorer from Python

Question

Using subprocess I want to open Windows File Explorer. Then wait for 1 second and close it:

import subprocess, time
subprocess.Popen(r'explorer /select,"D:\tmp\temp"')
time.sleep(1)

How to close File Explorer?

read [subprocess](https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html) documentation - there are all information - ie. `kill()` — furas, Dec 29 '16 at 01:14
How do you `terminate` or `kill` if `Popen` leaves no `pid` number? — alphanumeric, Dec 29 '16 at 01:16
im pretty sure the issue is that the process is killed almost instantly and it just puts a different explorer instance in the background — Joran Beasley, Dec 29 '16 at 01:28
@JoranBeasley, yes this is what happens. If the OP does `p = subprocess.Popen(r'explorer /select,"D:\tmp\temp"');` `print(p.wait())`, it should return print an exit code of 1. — Eryk Sun, Dec 29 '16 at 01:34
i think you could run some kind of `taskkill` command against a new Popen ... — Joran Beasley, Dec 29 '16 at 01:35
Check here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1230669/subprocess-deleting-child-processes-in-windows — Dekel, Dec 29 '16 at 01:37
@Dekel, the new Explorer instance is launched by the DCOM service. It's not a child of the Explorer instance created by `Popen`. — Eryk Sun, Dec 29 '16 at 01:43
If thats the case I don't think you can close it using the PID of the current subprocess you just opened. — Dekel, Dec 29 '16 at 01:44

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 28 '23 at 06:10

I hope it works

import subprocess
import time
from pygetwindow import getWindowsWithTitle
from pywinauto import Application
# Open
subprocess.Popen(r'explorer /select,"D:\tmp\temp"')
time.sleep(1)
#locate window
explorer_windows = getWindowsWithTitle("This PC")
time.sleep(1)
# Close the window 
window = explorer_windows[0]
app = Application().connect(handle=window._hWnd)
app.top_window().close()

How to open and close File Explorer from Python

1 Answers1