detecting idle time in python

Question

How do I detect if the system is idle in windows using python. i.e. no keyboard or mouse activity. This has already been asked before. And there seems to be no GetLastInputInfo in pywin32 module.

Answer 1

Actually, you can access GetLastInputInfo via the cytpes library:

import ctypes
GetLastInputInfo = ctypes.windll.User32.GetLastInputInfo  # callable function pointer

This might not be what you want though, as it does not provide idle information across the whole system, but only about the session that called the function. See MSDN docs.

Alternatively, you could check if the system is locked, or if the screen-saver has been started.

Answer 2

from ctypes import Structure, windll, c_uint, sizeof, byref

class LASTINPUTINFO(Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ('cbSize', c_uint),
        ('dwTime', c_uint),
    ]

def get_idle_duration():
    lastInputInfo = LASTINPUTINFO()
    lastInputInfo.cbSize = sizeof(lastInputInfo)
    windll.user32.GetLastInputInfo(byref(lastInputInfo))
    millis = windll.kernel32.GetTickCount() - lastInputInfo.dwTime
    return millis / 1000.0

Call get_idle_duration() to get idle time in seconds.

Answer 3

Seems like GetLastInputInfo is now available in pywin32:

win32api.GetLastInputInfo()

does the trick and returns the timer tick from the last user input action.

Here with an example program

import time
import win32api
for i in range(10):
   print(win32api.GetLastInputInfo())
   time.sleep(1)

If one presses a key/moves the mouse while the script sleeps, the printed number changes.