SetWindowsHookEx returns 0 when compiling for the .NET 4.0 framework in 32bit machines

eblacklight picture eblacklight · Aug 25, 2010 · Viewed 9.4k times · Source

I'm trying to set a low level windows keyboard hook to grab three keys pressed even if the application is not in focus. To do this I'm calling SetWindowsHookEx as

// Create an instance of HookProc.
KeyboardHookProcedure = new HookProc(KeyboardHookProc);
//install hook
hKeyboardHook = SetWindowsHookEx(
    WH_KEYBOARD_LL,
    KeyboardHookProcedure,
    Marshal.GetHINSTANCE(
        Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetModules()[0]),
    0);
//If SetWindowsHookEx fails.
if (hKeyboardHook == 0)
{
    //Returns the error code returned by the last unmanaged function called using platform invoke that has the DllImportAttribute.SetLastError flag set. 
    int errorCode = Marshal.GetLastWin32Error();
    //do cleanup
    Stop(false, true, false);
    //Initializes and throws a new instance of the Win32Exception class with the specified error. 
    throw new Win32Exception(errorCode);
}

This used to work on 32bit and 64bit machines using the .NET Framework 3.5 but after upgrading to the .NET Framework 4.0 stopped working on 32bit machines.

Does anyone know how to solve this so that I can use the 4.0 Framework and make this work on both 32bit and 64bit machines?

Answer

DsaIc picture DsaIc · Jun 29, 2012

import the dll like this:

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    public static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string name); 

then use

GetModuleHandle(Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.ModuleName)

to replace

Marshal.GetHINSTANCE(
    Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetModules()[0]