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POCan I put LowLevelMouseProc and LowLevelKeyboardProc in the main EXE?
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copied!<p>Global Windows hooks must be in a DLL because the hook is going to be called in the context of a different process, so the hook procedure's code must be injected into that process. However, there are <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644990%28VS.85%29.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">limitations</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p><code>SetWindowsHookEx</code> can be used to inject a DLL into another process. A 32-bit DLL cannot be injected into a 64-bit process, and a 64-bit DLL cannot be injected into a 32-bit process. If an application requires the use of hooks in other processes, it is required that a 32-bit application call <code>SetWindowsHookEx</code> to inject a 32-bit DLL into 32-bit processes, and a 64-bit application call <code>SetWindowsHookEx</code> to inject a 64-bit DLL into 64-bit processes. The 32-bit and 64-bit DLLs must have different names.</p> </blockquote> <p>For this reason, I'd rather use the low-level hooks <code>WH_MOUSE_LL</code> and <code>WH_KEYBOARD_LL</code>, instead of <code>WH_MOUSE</code> and <code>WH_KEYBOARD</code>. As seen from <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644986%28VS.85%29.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">their</a> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644985%28VS.85%29.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">documentation</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>This hook is called in the context of the thread that installed it. The call is made by sending a message to the thread that installed the hook. Therefore, the thread that installed the hook must have a message loop.</p> </blockquote> <p>This leads me to think that these particular hook procedures do not need to be in a separate DLL, and can just live inside the EXE that hooked them up. The <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644990(VS.85).aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">documentation for <code>SetWindowsHookEx</code></a>, however, says:</p> <blockquote> <p><code>lpfn</code></p> <p>[in] Pointer to the hook procedure. If the <code>dwThreadId</code> parameter is zero or specifies the identifier of a thread created by a different process, the <code>lpfn</code> parameter must point to a hook procedure in a DLL.</p> </blockquote> <p>No explicit exception for the two low-level hooks is mentioned.</p> <p>I have seen several .NET applications that use the low-level hooks without having their hook procedures in a separate DLL. That is another hint that this is acceptable. However, I'm a bit scared to do this myself since the documentation forbids it.</p> <p>Does anyone foresee any trouble if I don't use a DLL and just put these low-level hook procedures straight into my EXE?</p> <p><strong>Edit</strong>: For the bounty, I would like a definitive "yes, this is ok, because..." or "no, this can go wrong, because...".</p>

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