[python-win32] Re: UnicodeDecodeError in WMI interface (Py 2.5;

[Roger Upole]

Elan Ruskin wrote:
> Hello, I've run into some trouble with the pywin32 WMI interface that
> seems to be due to unicode translation.
>
> I'm trying to read system environment variables using Microsoft's own
> example here:
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/python/desktop/exp
> lorer/dmexpy03.mspx?mfr=true
>
> However, the example fails with a UnicodeDecodeError exception as soon
> as I try to access an attribute on the WMIService. The problem appears
> to be in the __getattr__() on <COMObject WbemScripting.SWbemLocator> and
> not inside the WMI service itself. For example, the following code
> crashes:
>
>>>> import win32com.client
>>>> objWMIService =
> win32com.client.Dispatch("WbemScripting.SWbemLocator")
>>>> objWMIService.ConnectServer
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>  File "<pyshell#23>", line 1, in <module>
>    dir(objWMIService.ConnectServer)
>  File
> "U:\dev\l4dbranch\game\sdktools\python\2.5\lib\site-packages\win32com\cl
> ient\dynamic.py", line 467, in __getattr__
>    (...)
>  File
> "U:\dev\l4dbranch\game\sdktools\python\2.5\lib\site-packages\win32com\cl
> ient\build.py", line 542, in <lambda>
>    return filter( lambda char: char in valid_identifier_chars,
> className)
> UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0x83 in position 52:
> ordinal not in range(128)
>
>
> Googling around for this problem revealed another thread (
> http://tinyurl.com/597pfp ) on the same issue, but no resolution or
> workaround.
>
> Do I need to put my Python in some sort of Unicode Mode or something? I
> can't seem to find any other documentation of what's going on here.
>
> I'm running plain US English XP, no international features installed.
> I'm using the stable Python 2.5 from python.org.
>
> Alternatively, does anyone know another convenient way I can read and
> set persistent SYSTEM and USER environment variables through Python?
>
> Thanks,
> Elan

This looks to be the same issue as bug 2009780:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2009780&group_id=78018&atid=551954

It's due to the way Idle sets the locale.  This is fixed in build 212.

        Roger