How do I permanently set the current directory to the Desktop in Python?

Question

Every time I want to open a text file that's on Desktop, I always need to change the directory in Python with these commands:

>>> import os
>>> os.chdir("C:/Users/Name/Desktop")

It's really annoying when I have to change it every time.
It's currently in C:\\Python34.
So how do I permanently set the working directory to Desktop? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can add the line to your PYTHONSTARTUP file. So when you start an interpreter os.chdir("C:/Users/Name/Desktop") will be run.

I have a startup.py in my home directory file with the following content:

print("(.startup.py)")
import datetime, os, pprint, re, sys, time
print("(imported datetime, os, pprint, re, sys, time)")

So every time I start ipython or a python shell those lines are executed.

Not 100 percent but I imagine setting the PYTHONSTARTUP="path_to_script" in your environment variables on windows should do the trick with the two lines in your question in the startup file.

So for your situation you can create a file lets call it startup.py and inside that file you put:

import os
os.chdir("C:/Users/Name/Desktop")

Then the steps to add environment variable PYTHONSTARTUP:

For windows 8:

From the Desktop, right-click the very bottom left corner of the screen to get the Power User Task Menu.

From the Power User Task Menu, click System. Click the Advanced System Settings link in the left column.

Under System variables, click New.

Add PYTHONSTARTUP to Variable name.

Add the path of the Python file to Variable value and click OK. # <-path_to_startup.py

Click OK.