Define multiple buttons for Windows commands

Question

I'm teaching myself Python.

I wrote this code for work to help me troubleshoot end users PCs. It opens a GUI with a selection of buttons. It's written in python using pyinstaller to convert it to an executable. It's super slow - taking 10-15+ seconds to run on a PC. Why is it so slow and how can I improve it overall?

The command I user for pyinstaller is pyinstaller -F -w <scriptname.py>

As an aside, the program opens an elevated command prompt by default. How do I make that an option?

from tkinter import *
import os, ctypes, sys
root=Tk()
root.title('Common Fixes')
root.geometry("250x500")
def mapSharedDrives():
 os.system('cmd /c " map_drives.bat')
def is_admin():
 try:
 return ctypes.windll.shell32.IsUserAnAdmin()
 except:
 return False
if is_admin():
 button=[]
 os.system('cmd /c "color a"')
 def showSystemInfo():
 os.system('cmd /c "systeminfo | find /i "Host Name" & systeminfo | find /i "boot time" & pause"')
 def restartPC ():
 os.system('cmd /c "shutdown /r"')
 
 def deleteWindowsCredentials():
 os.system('cmd /c "del %TEMP%\List.txt /s /f /q & del %TEMP%\tokensonly.txt /s /f /q"')
 
 def updateGroupPolicy():
 os.system('cmd /c "del %windir%\system32\GroupPolicy\ /s /f /q & gpupdate /force"')
 def sfcScanNow():
 os.system('cmd /c "sfc /scannow & pause"')
 def restartPrintSpooler():
 os.system('cmd /c "net stop spooler & net start spooler"')
 
 def DISM():
 os.system('cmd /c "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth & pause"')
 def addSwitchUser():
 os.system('cmd /c "reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v HideFastUserSwitching /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f"')
 def increaseOutlookMessageSize():
 os.system('cmd /c "reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office16円.0\Outlook\PST /v MaxLargeFileSize /t REG_DWORD /d 204800 /f & reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office16円.0\Outlook\PST /v WarnLargeFileSize /t REG_DWORD /d 184320 /f"')
 def increaseOutlookAttachmentSize():
 os.system('cmd /c "reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook /v MaximumAttachmentSize /t REG_DWORD /d 81920 /f"')
 
 def deleteOutlookFiles():
 os.system('cmd /c "del %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook /s /f /q & del %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook /s /f /q & rmdir %USERPROFILE%\appdata\local\Microsoft\Outlook /s /q & reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office16円.0\Outlook\Profiles /f & reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\​Software\​Policies\​Microsoft\​office\​14.0\​outlook /f & reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\​Software\​Microsoft\​Office\​15.0\​Outlook /f & reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\​Software\​Microsoft\​Office\​12.0\​Outlook /f & reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\​Software\​Microsoft\​Office\​11.0\​Outlook /f & reg delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\​Software\​Microsoft\​Office\​10.0\​Outlook /f & pause"')
 buttons = {
 "PC Info &\nLast Restarted": showSystemInfo,
 "Restart the PC": restartPC,
 "Delete Windows\nCredentials": deleteWindowsCredentials,
 "Update Group Policy": updateGroupPolicy,
 "SFC /Scannow": sfcScanNow,
 "Restart Print Spooler": restartPrintSpooler,
 "DISM": DISM,
 "Add Switch User": addSwitchUser,
 "Increase Outlook\nMessage Size": increaseOutlookMessageSize,
 "Increase Outlook\nAttachment Size": increaseOutlookAttachmentSize,
 "Delete Outlook Files": deleteOutlookFiles,
}
 for title, func in buttons.items():
 b = Button(height=2, width=15, text=title, command=func)
 b.pack()
else:
 # Re-run the program with admin rights
 ctypes.windll.shell32.ShellExecuteW(None, "runas", sys.executable, " ".join(sys.argv), None, 1)
buttons = {
 "Map a Network Drive": mapSharedDrives,
 "Admin Scripts":is_admin
}
for title, func in buttons.items():
 b = Button(height=2, width=15, text=title, command=func)
 b.pack()
root.mainloop()

• Sᴀᴍ Onᴇᴌᴀ: Welcome to code review! Asking how to improve the code is fine, however asking "...How do I make that an option?" is a feature request, which is not on-topic for this site.

Answer 1

mapSharedDrives should be map_shared_drives by PEP8.

Never bare except:. For is_admin, if you know that a specific exception indicates the user is not an admin, catch only that exception.

Move your global code starting with if is_admin(): into functions.

Don't os.system('cmd /c x'); instead call into one of the subprocess methods passing x, ideally with shell=False. Some of your commands shouldn't be external calls at all, such as del which should use pathlib.Path.unlink(), or winreg module instead of the reg calls.

An example of invoking subprocess:

from os import environ
from pathlib import Path
from subprocess import check_output
systeminfo = Path(environ['WINDIR']) / 'system32/systeminfo.exe'
output = check_output((systeminfo,), encoding='utf-8', shell=False)
lines = output.splitlines()
hostname, = (line for line in lines if line.startswith('Host Name'))
boot_time, = (line for line in lines if line.startswith('System Boot Time'))
print(hostname)
print(boot_time)

Even this is a poor example, because hostname has a Python built-in.

• user18013413: Thanks for your input. I'm not sure what mean when you say, "Don't os.system('cmd /c x'); instead call into one of the subprocess methods passing x, ideally with shell=False" , can give me an example? What subprocess method do you recommend?
• Reinderien: Example added; not all subprocess calls will look alike