WindowsError: [Error 3] The system cannot find the path specified: 'C:\\Documents and Settings\\%username%\\Desktop'

Question

I want to change my current working directory during the execution of the the script to my Desktop.

I used:

import os

os.chdir("C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop")

but its showing ERROR 3

WindowsError: [Error 3] The system cannot find the path specified: 'C:\\Documents and Settings\\%username%\\Desktop'

i want this code to work on multiple machines. I can't hard code my username in the script.. Is there any way to generalise this. above works in cmd so I thought it might work in python too. — adnaan.zohran, Oct 12 '13 at 07:43
`%username%` is an environment variable. You will have to expand it within the pathname. — AdrianHHH, Oct 12 '13 at 08:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

1

From this post, it looks like you need this (I'm on a mac, so I can't test this myself):

import getpass
import os

os.chdir("C:\Documents and Settings\%s\Desktop" %getpass.getuser())

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

answered Oct 12 '13 at 07:48

inspectorG4dget

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '14 at 15:57

0

I recommend doing this way:

import os

os.chdir(os.path.expandvars("C:\Documents and Settings\${username}\Desktop"))

This solution is more generic because it would work for any environment variable.

answered Oct 23 '14 at 15:57

Chris Wolf

2 Answers2