287

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

8
  • 2
    Do you nee to make the mouse movement in code without user intervention? Commented Jul 25, 2009 at 7:19
  • More information would be really helpful... Commented Jul 25, 2009 at 7:20
  • I wotk in Windows and i don't use any toolkit. I am really new to Python and I never worked with any GUI before. Where I start from? What mannual should I read? Commented Jul 25, 2009 at 7:26
  • 2
    why you need a python to do that, you can do that yourself? on a more serious note, why you need it, what is the purpose, a bit more details would be great Commented Jul 25, 2009 at 7:48
  • 3
    Just FYI if you are using this to keep your machine from locking you could be violating your company or organizations security policy as it is a means of circumventing auto computer locking properties. Ive used this in some places no problem just always make sure to check with your Sys Admins. Ive seen people lose their jobs over minor things like this. Commented Mar 4, 2016 at 15:37

19 Answers 19

383

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)
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

10 Comments

win32api.SetCursorPos((x,y)) is better to be replaced by win32api.mouse_event(win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE | win32con.MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE, int(x/SCREEN_WIDTH*65535.0), int(y/SCREEN_HEIGHT*65535.0)) in my experience for better integration with other application such as games.
@ObsessiveSSOℲ just take off the MOUSEEVENTF_ABSOLUTE flag. for details: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/…
can I use this library to control the speed/acceleration of the mouse ?
This had the advantage of not requiring installation (and associated management review and approval) of non-standard Python modules across 50+ windows boxes (digital signage kiosks).
tested in python3.x works too, feel free to edit the answer
|
232

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.

4 Comments

For people trying to install pyautogui, look here stackoverflow.com/questions/5892297/… and make sure to put sudo in front of your commands if you have permission problems.
"PyAutoGUI is slow" because of a safety feature that adds a 0.1 second pause after each call. If your script is out of control, you can slam the mouse to the top-left corner in that 0.1 seconds to stop it. To disable this, run pyautogui.PAUSE = 0 (though this is not recommended, because you can't use the mouse/keyboard to stop the script.)
Also, PyAutoGUI does not play well with more than 1 monitors: github.com/asweigart/pyautogui/issues/162
PyAutoGUI does work with multiple monitors on Windows (you use negative coordinates for other screens) but not yet on mac/linux. It also currently has no way of detecting the monitor layout. So, it works, but tenuously.
91

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

4 Comments

your ctypes code worked for me without any additional libraries! (python 2.6 on windows 7)
Thank you! I can't stand that there are like 3 3rd party libraries that you can do this with, however all 3 libraries are maddening to install or troubleshoot. This ctypes solution is the first native python solution and it works better than every other I have come across.
Where is the documentation for SetCursorPos?
Can confirm still works without any additional libraries. (python 3.7.4 win 10)
63

As of 2022, you can use mouse:

import mouse
mouse.move("500", "500")
mouse.click() # default to left click
# mouse.right_click()
# mouse.double_click(button='left')
# mouse.double_click(button='right')
# mouse.press(button='left')
# mouse.release(button='left')

Full Api documentation

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 / 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

4 Comments

You can also do mouse.move("500", "500", False) to move relatively.
is it possible to capture a specific window and simulate mouse click on it?
what's the difference with pynput? it also hooks events with ctypes and uses Quartz for mac
Nice one, doesn't work with macos OSError: Unsupported platform 'Darwin'
28

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)

1 Comment

Upvoting particularly for python 3.7 users on apple silicon (M2), since autopy is the only package that seems to be working (importing pyautogui seems to yield an ObjC Class 'b'NSEvent'' couldn't be found despite my bests attempts to fix it)
24

Linux

from Xlib import X, display
d = display.Display()
s = d.screen()
root = s.root
root.warp_pointer(300,300)
d.sync()

Source: Python mouse move in 5 lines of code (Linux only).

4 Comments

A google for "Python controlling mouse movement" now finds this page, how meta.
For the sake of completeness, since the question also asked to simulate mouse clicks, I'll add : Xlib.ext.xtest.fake_input(d, X.ButtonPress, 1); d.sync(); time.sleep(0.001); Xlib.ext.xtest.fake_input(d, X.ButtonRelease, 1); d.sync(); the sleep() call between press and release may or may not be required depending on the target application.
@Copas - Results appearing in your Google mean nothing. You're in a bubble. This shows up in a DuckDuckGo search for the same term - that's something real. That's something everyone else can reproduce and see for themselves. That's meta.
To control mouse in a VNC session, you need the display number as well like "d = display.Display(':1')" where :1 is the display number.
20

Check out the cross platform PyMouse: https://github.com/pepijndevos/PyMouse/

3 Comments

PyMouse has been superseded with PyUserInput, fits exactly the request, simple to use and cross platform. Big +1
@user336851, do you know how to tap space and tap screen shot key by using PyUswerInput?
@user336851, At this time PyUserInput is broken. Can't say if it works well or not because I can't even get it to install due to broken dependencies.
15

Pynput is the best solution I have found, both for Windows and for Mac. Super easy to program, and works very well.

For example,

from pynput.mouse import Button, Controller

mouse = Controller()

# Read pointer position
print('The current pointer position is {0}'.format(
    mouse.position))

# Set pointer position
mouse.position = (10, 20)
print('Now we have moved it to {0}'.format(
    mouse.position))

# Move pointer relative to current position
mouse.move(5, -5)

# Press and release
mouse.press(Button.left)
mouse.release(Button.left)

# Double click; this is different from pressing and releasing
# twice on Mac OSX
mouse.click(Button.left, 2)

# Scroll two steps down
mouse.scroll(0, 2)

4 Comments

I just tried to run an old program on a Windows computer and it did not work, so please do test it out before using. This program at least claims to support both.
I did some testing, and it turns out that my issue was that on Mac, having floats as coordinate values works just fine, but on Windows, the coordinates need to be integers. This module is cross-platform.
I have added an Issue to the github repository to see if they can improve it: github.com/moses-palmer/pynput/issues/79
It looks like the issue has since been fixed.
14

Quick and dirty function that'll left click wherever clicks times on Windows 7 using the ctypes library. No downloads required.

import ctypes

SetCursorPos = ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos
mouse_event = ctypes.windll.user32.mouse_event

def left_click(x, y, clicks=1):
  SetCursorPos(x, y)
  for i in xrange(clicks):
   mouse_event(2, 0, 0, 0, 0)
   mouse_event(4, 0, 0, 0, 0)

left_click(200, 200) #left clicks at 200, 200 on your screen. Was able to send 10k clicks instantly.

Comments

5

Another alternative would be mouse library, I personally use it as it is relatively simple and cross-platform.

Here is how you can use it:

import mouse
# move 100 right and 100 down with a duration of 0.5 seconds
mouse.move(100, 100, absolute=False, duration=0.5)
# left click
mouse.click('left')
# right click
mouse.click('right')

Here is the source: How to Control your Mouse in Python

Comments

5

The accepted answer worked for me but it was unstable (sometimes clicks wouldn't regsiter) so I added an additional MOUSEEVENTF_LEFTUP . Then it was working reliably

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

Comments

4
import ctypes
from time import sleep

SetCursorPos = ctypes.windll.user32.SetCursorPos
print("Woohoo!\nTake Rest!\nMouse pointer will keep moving!\n\nPress ctrl+c to stop...!")
while True:
    SetCursorPos(300, 300)
    sleep(2)
    SetCursorPos(500, 500)
    sleep(4)

Comments

3

If you need to work with games. As explained in this post https://www.learncodebygaming.com/blog/pyautogui-not-working-use-directinput, some games like Minecraft or Fortnite have their own way of registering mouse / keyboard events. The way to control mouse and keyboard events is by using the brand new PyDirectInput library. Their github repository is https://github.com/learncodebygaming/pydirectinput, and has a lot of great information.
Here's a quick code that does a mouse loop, and clicks:

import pydirectinput  # pip install pydirectinput


pydirectinput.moveTo(0, 500)
pydirectinput.click()

1 Comment

This works with synergy integrated multi desktops and VLC Directshow input. Clever AF.
2

very easy 1- install pakage :

pip install mouse

2- add library to project :

import mouse

3- use it for example :

mouse.right_click()

in this url describe all function that you can use it :

https://github.com/boppreh/mouse

1 Comment

It's even has MAC support now. Direct pip install will not work for MAC. You need to install in MAC by following commands: pip install pyobjc-framework-Quartz pip install git+github.com/boppreh/mouse.git
2

If you want to move the mouse, use this:

import pyautogui
pyautogui.moveTo(x,y)

If you want to click, use this:

import pyautogui
pyautogui.click(x,y)

If you don't have pyautogui installed, you must have python attached to CMD. Go to CMD and write: pip install pyautogui

This will install pyautogui for Python 2.x.

For Python 3.x, you will probably have to use pip3 install pyautogui or python3 -m pip install pyautogui.

2 Comments

You'll want to call pyautogui.moveTo(x, y) because move() moves the cursor relative to its current position.
Ah, sorry I misunderstood your original comment. Yes, both functions work. moveTo() moves to an absolute location, while move() moves relative to the current cursor location.
2

Move Mouse Randomly On Screen

It will move the mouse randomly on screen according to your screen resolution. check code below.

Install pip install pyautogui using this command.

import pyautogui
import time
import random as rnd

#calculate height and width of screen
w, h = list(pyautogui.size())[0], list(pyautogui.size())[1]

while True:
    time.sleep(1)
    #move mouse at random location in screen, change it to your preference
    pyautogui.moveTo(rnd.randrange(0, w), 
                     rnd.randrange(0, h))#, duration = 0.1)

Comments

1

try using pyautogui, easy and also you can simulate pressing keys on keaboard

Comments

0

Try Clicknium, https://www.clicknium.com/documents/references/python/mouse/ It can control the mouse and keyboard and help you to locate the UI elements in web browsers and desktop applications.

This is a sample of moving the mouse along a circle

from time import sleep
import math
from clicknium import clicknium as cc
def circle():
    a,b = cc.mouse.position()
    w = 20  
    m = (2*math.pi)/w 
    r = 200      

    while 1:    
        for i in range(0, w+1):
            x = int(a+r*math.sin(m*i))  
            y = int(b+r*math.cos(m*i))
            cc.mouse.move(x,y)
            sleep(0.2)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    circle()

Comments

-2

The reality is automating mouse and keyboard using python is a bit complicated. Specially if you're building in Linux. Anyways...

Do you really need to do it in Python, tho? Cause there's an easier way to do it, if you're in Windows. Just use AutoHotkey scripting language

2 Comments

Questions for more information should be posted as comments. Please use the answer box for solutions.
This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.