systemcomputertool

Systemcomputertool

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ComputerTool Technical Documentation

Version: 1.0.0
License: MIT
Author: ComputerTool Project
Last Updated: May 2026

1. Overview

ComputerTool is a cross-platform Python utility designed to discover, categorize, and launch system administration tools on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It provides a unified, text-based interactive interface that adapts to the host operating system, offering relevant utilities for system monitoring, network diagnostics, disk management, and more.

Key Features

  • Cross-Platform Support: Automatically detects Windows, Linux (with distro detection), and macOS.
  • Dynamic Tool Discovery: Loads only tools available on the current system (e.g., apt tools on Debian/Ubuntu, brew on macOS).
  • Interactive TUI: A color-coded, menu-driven interface for easy navigation.
  • System Information Dashboard: Displays detailed OS, hardware, disk, and memory statistics.
  • Safe Launching: Handles terminal emulation for CLI tools and direct execution for GUI applications.

2. Requirements

  • Python: Version 3.6 or higher.
  • Operating System: Windows 10/11, modern Linux distributions, or macOS 10.15+.
  • Dependencies: No external third-party libraries are required. The script uses only Python standard library modules (os, sys, platform, subprocess, shutil, ctypes, etc.).

3. Installation & Usage

3.1. Running the Script

No installation is required. Simply download computertool.py and run it using Python.

python3 computertool.py

3.2. Command-Line Arguments

Argument Description
(None) Launches the interactive menu system.
--list Prints all available tools for the current OS to stdout and exits.
--info Displays system information summary and exits.

3.3. Interactive Menu Controls

Once launched, the main menu provides the following options:

  • [1-N]: Select a tool category (e.g., System Monitoring, Network).
  • [i]: Show detailed System Information (OS, Disk, Memory).
  • [r]: Refresh the tool list (useful if new tools were installed while the script was running).
  • [0]: Exit the application.

Inside a category:

  • [1-N]: Launch the selected tool.
  • [0]: Return to the main menu.

4. Architecture

The codebase is structured using object-oriented principles with clear separation of concerns.

4.1. Core Classes

Colors

Handles ANSI escape codes for terminal coloring. It includes a check (supports_color) to disable colors on unsupported terminals (e.g., Windows CMD without VT support, though it attempts to enable it via ctypes).

SystemInfo

Responsible for detecting and storing system metadata.

  • Detection: Uses platform module for OS/Arch/CPU.
  • Linux Distro: Parses /etc/os-release or uses lsb_release.
  • Desktop Environment: Checks environment variables (XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP) and binary existence (gnome-shell, plasmashell, etc.).
  • Hardware Stats:
    • Windows: Uses ctypes to call GlobalMemoryStatusEx and GetLogicalDrives.
    • Linux/macOS: Reads /proc/meminfo and uses os.statvfs for disk usage.

Tool

Represents a single executable command.

  • Attributes: name, description, command, args, run_in_terminal, requires_admin.
  • Launch Logic:
    • If run_in_terminal is False: Uses subprocess.Popen to detach the process (GUI apps).
    • If run_in_terminal is True: Spawns a new terminal window.
    • Windows: Uses cmd /c start.
    • macOS: Uses osascript to tell Terminal.app to execute the script.
    • Linux: Iterates through a list of known terminal emulators (gnome-terminal, konsole, xterm, etc.) to find one available on the system.

ToolCategory

A container for a list of Tool objects, used for grouping in the UI (e.g., "Network Tools").

ToolProvider Classes

Three static provider classes generate the tool lists based on the OS:

  • WindowsToolProvider: Focuses on .msc, .cpl, and ms-settings: URIs.
  • LinuxToolProvider: Focuses on CLI tools (top, ip, systemctl) and checks for their existence using shutil.which.
  • MacOSToolProvider: Focuses on .app bundles via the open command and BSD-style CLI tools.

ToolMenu

The controller class that manages the user interaction loop, screen clearing, and input parsing.

5. Supported Tools by Platform

5.1. Windows

  • System: Task Manager, System Info (msinfo32), Registry Editor, Event Viewer.
  • Disk: Disk Management, Cleanup, Defrag.
  • Network: Firewall, Network Connections, IP Config.
  • Admin: Services, Local Users, Group Policy.
  • Recovery: System Restore, Memory Diagnostic, SFC.

5.2. Linux

  • Monitoring: top, htop, glances, vmstat, iostat.
  • Process: ps, pstree, lsof, pkill.
  • Network: ip addr, ss, netstat, ping, traceroute, nmap (if installed).
  • Systemd: systemctl (list services, failed units), journalctl (logs), systemd-analyze.
  • Package Mgmt: Dynamic detection of apt, dnf, yum, pacman, zypper, snap, flatpak.
  • Security: ufw/firewall-cmd, iptables, fail2ban, SELinux/AppArmor status.

5.3. macOS

  • GUI Apps: Activity Monitor, Disk Utility, System Settings, Console, Keychain Access.
  • CLI Tools: top, vm_stat, diskutil, system_profiler, launchctl.
  • Network: ifconfig, netstat, arp, ping.
  • Package Mgmt: Homebrew (brew list, brew outdated) if detected.

6. Development & Extension

6.1. Adding New Tools

To add a new tool, modify the respective ToolProvider class.

Example: Adding a new Linux tool

# Inside LinuxToolProvider.get_tools()
cat = ToolCategory("My Custom Category", "[*]")
# Check if the binary exists before adding
if shutil.which("my-custom-tool"):
    cat.add(Tool(
        name="My Custom Tool",
        description="Does something cool",
        command="my-custom-tool",
        args=["--verbose"],
        run_in_terminal=True
    ))
categories.append(cat)

6.2. Adding a New OS Support

  1. Create a new class NewOSToolProvider inheriting the structure of existing providers.
  2. Implement the get_tools() static method returning List[ToolCategory].
  3. Update ToolMenu._load_tools() to include a check for the new OS: python elif self.sys_info.os_name == "NewOS": self.categories = NewOSToolProvider.get_tools()

7. Troubleshooting

7.1. Colors not displaying

Ensure your terminal supports ANSI escape codes. On Windows, ensure you are using Windows Terminal, PowerShell, or a recent version of CMD. The script attempts to enable VT processing automatically on Windows.

7.2. "Command not found" errors

The script checks for binary existence using shutil.which for most Linux/macOS tools. If a tool fails to launch:

  1. Ensure the tool is installed.
  2. Ensure the tool is in the system PATH.
  3. For Windows .msc or .cpl files, ensure they are present in C:\Windows\System32.

7.3. Terminal Emulator Detection on Linux

If launching a CLI tool fails to open a new window, the script iterates through a hardcoded list of terminal emulators. If your preferred terminal is not detected, install one of the supported ones (e.g., gnome-terminal, xterm, konsole) or modify the terminals list in Tool._launch_in_terminal.

8. License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. You are free to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software.

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