MemoryError in pywinauto.findwindows.find_windows – Need Help!

[ktw3857]

Hello everyone,

I've developed a Python application and distributed it to users.
Most of them are not experiencing any issues, but on some users' PCs, an error occurs with the following function:

# Code to find window handles for the program named 'ABC '
winhandle_list = pywinauto.findwindows.find_windows(title="ABC  ")  

The runtime error log saved in the logfile is as follows:

ERROR:root:Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "my_qt.py", line 952, in find_abc_windows
  File "pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 344, in find_windows
  File "pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 273, in find_elements
  File "pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 273, in <listcomp>
  File "pywinauto\win32_element_info.py", line 83, in rich_text
  File "pywinauto\handleprops.py", line 92, in text
  File "ctypes\__init__.py", line 297, in create_unicode_buffer
MemoryError

I authored only the my_qt.py file, and within it, the find_abc_windows() function calls ~~~.find_windows().

Since the code works on most users' PCs, I don't think the issue lies with my code,
but I'm stumped about where the problem might be or what I'm missing.

In my attempts to troubleshoot,
I learned that create_unicode_buffer is a function for allocating memory,
and the failure indicates a memory allocation issue.
However, this function doesn't usually require a lot of memory.

I wondered if it was a 32-bit vs. 64-bit issue,
so I checked and confirmed that my program was compiled with Python 64-bit, and the affected user's PC (i7 12th gen, 16GB RAM) also runs a 64-bit OS, so that doesn't seem to be the problem either.

Considering it might be an issue with the version of the Visual C++ Runtime Library,
I advised the user to uninstall their current library, install the latest version, and then reboot, but the error persists.

I've been at this for days and just can't seem to figure out what I'm missing.
Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[itegumo]

Hello everyone,

I've developed a Python application and distributed it to users.
Most of them are not experiencing any issues, but on some users' PCs, an error occurs with the following function:

# Code to find window handles for the program named 'ABC '
winhandle_list = pywinauto.findwindows.find_windows(title="ABC  ")  

The runtime error log saved in the logfile is as follows:

ERROR:root:Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "my_qt.py", line 952, in find_abc_windows
  File "pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 344, in find_windows
  File "pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 273, in find_elements
  File "pywinauto\findwindows.py", line 273, in <listcomp>
  File "pywinauto\win32_element_info.py", line 83, in rich_text
  File "pywinauto\handleprops.py", line 92, in text
  File "ctypes\__init__.py", line 297, in create_unicode_buffer
MemoryError

I authored only the my_qt.py file, and within it, the find_abc_windows() function calls ~~~.find_windows().

Since the code works on most users' PCs, I don't think the issue lies with my code,
but I'm stumped about where the problem might be or what I'm missing.

In my attempts to troubleshoot,
I learned that create_unicode_buffer is a function for allocating memory,
and the failure indicates a memory allocation issue.
However, this function doesn't usually require a lot of memory.

I wondered if it was a 32-bit vs. 64-bit issue,
so I checked and confirmed that my program was compiled with Python 64-bit, and the affected user's PC (i7 12th gen, 16GB RAM) also runs a 64-bit OS, so that doesn't seem to be the problem either.

Considering it might be an issue with the version of the Visual C++ Runtime Library,
I advised the user to uninstall their current library, install the latest version, and then reboot, but the error persists.

I've been at this for days and just can't seem to figure out what I'm missing.
Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hello, I am experiencing the same error. The same code works properly on two computers on Windows 10, but with one on Windows 11 I'm experiencing this issue.
Did you manage to fix it ?
it seems related to win32, to ctypes library in create_unicode_buffer and buftype() in particular

SOLVED for me:
I just identified the culprit ! It was SteelSeriesGG.exe app for the keyboard (bloatware **** ...), even in the tray it was somehow messing with it.
Basically you might have some app that messes with it and it can even be in the background, so try by closing them one by one. Hope it helps