Global keyboard hook with WH_KEYBOARD_LL and keybd_event (windows)

Question

I am trying to write a simple global keyboard hook program to redirect some keys. For example, when the program is executed, I press \'a\' on the keyboard, the program can d

Answer 1

First one is easy. You get one for key down and another for key up. :)

As for the why it can work without a DLL - that's because it is a global hook. Unlike thread-specific ones it is executed in your own process, not in the process where keyboard event happened. It is done via message sending to the thread which has installed the hook - that's precisely why you need message loop here. Without it your hook can't be ran as there would be no one to listen for incoming messages.

The DLL is required for thread-specific hooks because they're called in the context of another process. For this to work, your DLL should be injected into that process. It is just not the case here.