Python Tkinter runs without DOS box

Name the python file with the extension .pyw, while not py.

Windows users: if you click a .py Python program's filename in a Windows file explorer to start it (or launch it with os.system), a DOS console box automatically pops up to serve as the program's standard stream. If your program makes windows of its own, you can avoid this console pop-up window by naming your program's source-code file with a .pyw extension, not .py. The .pyw extension simply means a .py source file without a DOS pop-up on Windows.

One caveat: in the Python 1.5.2 release, .pyw files can only be run, not imported -- the .pyw is not recognized as a module name. If you want a program to both be run without a DOS console pop-up and be importable elsewhere, you need both .py and .pyw files; the .pyw may simply serve as top-level script logic that imports and calls the core logic in the .py. See Section 9.4 in Chapter 9, for an example.

Also note that because printed output goes to this DOS pop-up when a program is clicked, scripts that simply print text and exit will generate an odd "flash" -- the DOS console box pops up, output is printed into it, and the pop-up goes immediately away (not the most user-friendly of features!). To keep the DOS pop-up box around so you can read printed output, simply add a raw_input( ) call at the bottom of your script to pause for an Enter key press before exiting.