Window hooks in c#

Question

Im trying to hook up to other windows from csharp. Im using SetWindowsHookEx, but no luck with converting it fom c++ t c#. I found this thread here but it wasnt solved. The problem is that SetWindowsHookEx returns 0. It includes best code samle i found:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowDrawer
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        private delegate int HookProc(int code, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
        static IntPtr hHook;
        IntPtr windowHandle;
        uint processHandle;

        HookProc PaintHookProcedure;     

        [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "FindWindow", SetLastError = true)]
        static extern System.IntPtr FindWindowByCaption(int ZeroOnly, string lpWindowName);

        [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetWindowsHookEx", SetLastError = true)]
        static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook, HookProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);

        [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern int CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

        // When you don't want the ProcessId, use this overload and pass IntPtr.Zero for the second parameter
        [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out uint lpdwProcessId);

        [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet =System.Runtime.InteropServices.CharSet.Auto)]
        public static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string lpModuleName);

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            PaintHookProcedure = new HookProc(PaintHookProc);
            windowHandle = FindWindowByCaption(0, "Untitled - Notepad");
            uint threadID = GetWindowThreadProcessId(windowHandle, out processHandle);
            IntPtr hMod = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetHINSTANCE(typeof(Form1).Module);

            // HERE IS THE PROBLEM.  WHAT THE HECK DO I PASS INTO THE LAST 2 PARAMS?  I get a null pointer
            hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_GETMESSAGE, PaintHookProcedure, hMod, threadID);


        }

        public int PaintHookProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
        {
           // Do some painting here.
            return CallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, lParam); 
        }

        private const int WM_PAINT = 15;
        private const int WH_GETMESSAGE = 3;
    }
}

Any help, advices?

Answer 1

The WH_GETMESSAGE hook is a global hook. It requires a DLL that can be injected into another process. The hMod argument. There's a problem, you can't write such a DLL in a managed language. The target process won't have the CLR initialized.

There's a code project that offers such a DLL, maybe you can make it work. Black belt required.

Answer 2

Have you looked at the EasyHook project? It seems to be a pretty active project. Microsoft also have an example on their site.