Handling Thick client applications using Python

[DeaD_EyE]

1. Starting, stopping processes: psutil
   Starting, stopping, creating windows services: pywinservicemanager
   Gui automation: PyAutoGUI
   For alert messages you need a kind of handler. Maybe PyAutogui can do this also, but I have only once time used it for a very simple task (seeking a Button with a screenshot of the button and clicking it).
   
2. paramiko and to abstract paramiko you can use scp.
   

Python 3 can handle binary data strings with encoding.
For Selenium is also a Python-Wrapper/Port available.

For example the LibVirtManager on Linux for KVM is using Python.