pywinauto crashes with tkinter on Python 3.7 on exit

Simply importing pywinauto and tkinter together will crash Python 3.7 post execution

Expected Behavior

Not get any “Python has stopped working” crash message after Python script has executed.

Actual Behavior

After execution, Python should be able to exit gracefully without a crash message.

Steps to Reproduce the Problem

1. import tkinter
2. import pywinauto
3. create a Tk() instance
4. quit Tk instance
5. Python script will exit but a crash message will be shown

Short Example of Code to Demonstrate the Problem

import tkinter as tk
import pywinauto as pyw
root = tk.Tk()

Specifications

• Pywinauto version: 0.6.7
• Python version and bitness: 3.7-32
• Platform and OS: Windows 10 64 bit

[fizban99]

Just wanted to add some additional information. In my case, I have Python 3.7.6 on Windows 10 and I was experiencing the same issue. The workaround of launching the script with pythonw did not work. The only workaround I found was using a hard exit after mainloop:

import os
import tkinter as tk
import win32ui
root = tk.Tk()
root.mainloop()
os._exit(0)

[np-8]

I tried to reproduce the problem with the abovementioned

import win32ui
import tkinter as tk
root = tk.Tk()
root.mainloop()

but was unable to get any errors. I tested even with the same exact Python version, and tried multiple pywin32 versions. Tested versions, without any error:

• Python 3.8.6 32-bit (venv), + pywin 300
• Python 3.7.9 64-bit, + pywin 300
• Python 3.7.7 32-bit, + pywin 300, 227, 226, 225, 224, 223 and 222

This is strange since before at least with Python 3.7.7 32-bit + pywin 222-227 (some of them) I last time could reproduce the error. Also this did not produce the error (Python 3.7.7 32-bit + pywin 227 + pywinauto 0.6.8):

import tkinter as tk
import pywinauto as pyw
root = tk.Tk()
root.mainloop()

Some hypothesis for the reason:

(1) The pywin pywin32_postinstall.py had one error on -remove : (Failed to unregister Pythonwin: [WinError 5] Access is denied), even with admin rights, but the -install and dll copying was working without errors. This could in theory affect testing of multiple pywin32 versions, but I think that’s very small change. (2) I have now new laptop and probably also newer Windows 10 build. (1909, OS Build 18363.1139). Maybe that could affect?

Maybe there could be some other reasons, too, but seems that this will be difficult to hunt down. This as a note if anyone starts debugging the issue some day.