Hey there! Let's tackle your two questions clearly and simply, since you mentioned you don't have much programming experience:

Most programs (especially games with anti-cheat) tell the difference by looking at how the input reaches them:

• Physical presses come from your keyboard's hardware, which triggers system-level interrupts. Windows then sends these inputs to apps through a low-level message queue that includes "hardware origin" flags.
• Tools like pyautogui or pywinauto usually simulate inputs by calling Windows API functions like PostMessage or SendInput. While SendInput is closer to real hardware input, many programs (especially games) can check extra metadata attached to the input message—using functions like GetMessageExtraInfo()—to spot if it came from a software simulation instead of a physical keyboard.
• Strict anti-cheat systems go even further: they might directly read keyboard hardware states or block any input that doesn't come from a recognized physical device.

Since your script works on other windows but not games, the issue is almost certainly that games use different input handling systems (like DirectInput/Raw Input) or have permission/anti-cheat blocks. Here are the simplest fixes to try first:

First: Run your Python script as Administrator #

Many games launch with Administrator privileges to access system resources. If your script is running as a regular user, it won't have permission to send inputs to the game window. Just right-click your Python IDE/script file and select "Run as administrator"—this fixes the problem more often than you'd think.

Second: Switch pywinauto's backend #

Pywinauto uses two backends to interact with windows: win32 (default) and uia. Some game windows respond better to the uia backend. Try this code:

from pywinauto import Application

# Connect to your game window (replace with your game's actual window title)
app = Application(backend="uia").connect(title="Your Game's Window Title")
game_window = app.window(title="Your Game's Window Title")

# Send a key press with a small pause to avoid overwhelming the game
game_window.type_keys("W", pause=0.1)

You can find your game's window title by checking the title bar, or using the built-in Windows Spy++ tool if the title is hidden.

Third: Use direct Windows API calls with pywin32 #

If the above don't work, try using the pywin32 library to call the SendInput API directly—it's more likely to be recognized by games. First install it with:

pip install pywin32

Then use this simple script to send key presses:

import win32api
import win32con
import time

def press_key(key_code):
    # Press the key
    win32api.keybd_event(key_code, 0, 0, 0)
    time.sleep(0.1)  # Short delay to hold the key briefly
    # Release the key
    win32api.keybd_event(key_code, 0, win32con.KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0)

# Example: Press the W key (win32con.VK_W is the virtual key code for W)
press_key(win32con.VK_W)

You can find virtual key codes for other keys by searching "win32con virtual key codes" (e.g., VK_SPACE for spacebar, VK_LEFT for left arrow).

Important Note #

If you're trying this with an online game that uses anti-cheat (like VAC, Easy Anti-Cheat), stop right now. Most anti-cheat systems flag simulated inputs as cheating, and you could get banned. These fixes are only safe for single-player or offline games.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者ZebraMaster