Controlling mouse with Python

How does one control the mouse cursor in Python, i.e. move it to certain position and click, under Windows?

Solution 1:

Tested on WinXP, Python 2.6 (3.x also tested) after installing pywin32 (pywin32-214.win32-py2.6.exe in my case):

import win32api, win32con
def click(x,y):
    win32api.SetCursorPos((x,y))
    win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTDOWN,x,y,0,0)
    win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP,x,y,0,0)
click(10,10)

Solution 2:

Try with the PyAutoGUI module. It's multiplatform.

pip install pyautogui

And so:

import pyautogui
pyautogui.click(100, 100)

It also has other features:

import pyautogui
pyautogui.moveTo(100, 150)
pyautogui.moveRel(0, 10)  # move mouse 10 pixels down
pyautogui.dragTo(100, 150)
pyautogui.dragRel(0, 10)  # drag mouse 10 pixels down

This is much easier than going through all the win32con stuff.

Solution 3:

You can use win32api or ctypes module to use win32 apis for controlling mouse or any gui

Here is a fun example to control mouse using win32api:

import win32api
import time
import math

for i in range(500):
    x = int(500+math.sin(math.pi*i/100)*500)
    y = int(500+math.cos(i)*100)
    win32api.SetCursorPos((x,y))
    time.sleep(.01)

A click using ctypes:

import ctypes

# see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646260(VS.85).aspx for details
ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos(100, 20)
ctypes.windll.user32.mouse_event(2, 0, 0, 0,0) # left down
ctypes.windll.user32.mouse_event(4, 0, 0, 0,0) # left up

Solution 4:

As of 2021, you can use mouse:

import mouse
mouse.move("500", "500")
mouse.left_click()

Features

Global event hook on all mice devices (captures events regardless of focus).
Listen and sends mouse events.
Works with Windows and Linux (requires sudo).
Pure Python, no C modules to be compiled.
Zero dependencies. Trivial to install and deploy, just copy the files.
Python 2 and 3
Includes high level API (e.g. record and play).
Events automatically captured in separate thread, doesn't block main program.
Tested and documented.

Installation

Windows: pip install mouse
Linux: sudo pip install mouse

Solution 5:

Another option is to use the cross-platform AutoPy package. This package has two different options for moving the mouse:

This code snippet will instantly move the cursor to position (200,200):

import autopy
autopy.mouse.move(200,200)

If you instead want the cursor to visibly move across the screen to a given location, you can use the smooth_move command:

import autopy
autopy.mouse.smooth_move(200,200)