{"id":21735,"library":"pyautoit","title":"pyautoit","description":"Python binding for AutoItX3.dll, enabling automation of Windows GUI interactions. Current version 0.6.5. Released infrequently; last update in 2020.","status":"maintenance","version":"0.6.5","language":"python","source_language":"en","source_url":"https://github.com/jacexh/pyautoit","tags":["automation","windows","gui","autoit","legacy"],"install":[{"cmd":"pip install pyautoit","lang":"bash","label":"Install via pip"}],"dependencies":[],"imports":[{"note":"The package exposes the module directly as 'autoit'; importing from pyautoit is unnecessary.","wrong":"from pyautoit import autoit","symbol":"autoit","correct":"import autoit"}],"quickstart":{"code":"import autoit\n\n# Launch Notepad\nautoit.run(\"notepad.exe\")\nautoit.win_wait_active(\"Untitled - Notepad\", 5)\n\n# Send text\nautoit.send(\"Hello, world!\", 0)\n\n# Click the 'X' button to close\nautoit.win_close(\"Untitled - Notepad\")","lang":"python","description":"Open Notepad, write text, and close the window."},"warnings":[{"fix":"Download and install AutoIt from https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/downloads/. Ensure AutoItX3.dll is registered (or use regsvr32).","message":"pyautoit requires the AutoItX3.dll to be installed on the system. The DLL is not bundled; you must install AutoIt or AutoItX separately. Without it, import will fail silently or raise a RuntimeError.","severity":"breaking","affected_versions":"all"},{"fix":"Refer to the official pyautoit documentation or source code for exact function signatures.","message":"Function names differ slightly from AutoIt VBA. For example, use 'win_wait_active' instead of 'WinWaitActive'. Case-insensitive but underscores matter.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":"all"},{"fix":"Install a 32-bit version of Python (e.g., from python.org) and ensure dependencies are 32-bit.","message":"The library is 32-bit only. On 64-bit Python, loading AutoItX3.dll may fail with a 'BadDll' error. You must use 32-bit Python.","severity":"gotcha","affected_versions":"all"},{"fix":"Consider alternatives like pywinauto or use the AutoItX COM interface directly via win32com.","message":"The project has not been updated since 2020. It may not work with newer AutoIt versions or Python 3.10+ due to potential changes in ctypes or DLL handling.","severity":"deprecated","affected_versions":"0.6.5"}],"env_vars":null,"last_verified":"2026-04-27T00:00:00.000Z","next_check":"2026-07-26T00:00:00.000Z","problems":[{"fix":"Install AutoIt and run 'regsvr32 AutoItX3.dll' as administrator, or copy the DLL to system32.","cause":"AutoItX3.dll is not registered or not in PATH.","error":"ImportError: DLL load failed while importing autoit: The specified module could not be found."},{"fix":"Use 'import autoit' directly; it is the correct module.","cause":"Using 'from pyautoit import autoit' results in importing the package's __init__.py instead of the autoit module.","error":"AttributeError: module 'autoit' has no attribute 'run'"},{"fix":"Switch to a 32-bit Python interpreter (e.g., C:\\Python32\\python.exe).","cause":"Running 64-bit Python with a 32-bit DLL. pyautoit only supports 32-bit Python.","error":"OSError: [WinError 193] %1 is not a valid Win32 application"}],"ecosystem":"pypi","meta_description":null,"install_score":null,"install_tag":null,"quickstart_score":null,"quickstart_tag":null}