Cheat Engine

iTz SWAT · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 3:45 am Post subject: [VB2008/2010] Keyboard Hook

Hey,
I haven't programmed in years.
I have a simple question.
A while ago I used the GetAsyncKeyState function to check when ever a key was pressed. I used it as a Global Hotkey for many applications.

I was told that you can hook a keyboard so then instead of running a timer consuming performance and also sometimes missing a key, a hook will send the application a message when ever the key is pressed.

1. How is this done?
2. Can this be used globally (when application is minimized etc)
3. Does it consume more performance then GetAsyncKeyState

Jesper · Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:51 am Post subject:

I don't know about hooking the keyboard but I recently made a keylogger that uses GetAsyncKeyState to check every key code between 0 to 255 and it uses 0-2% CPU. So I'd say that GetAsyncKeyState doesn't use that many resources if used correctly.

iTz SWAT · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:05 am Post subject:

FullyAwesome · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:36 am Post subject:

you use RegisterHotkey() (and UnregisterHotkey()), you should be able to find some vb.net examples around since it's pretty straight forward.

Jesper · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:09 am Post subject:

Make a new thread and check for keys within a while statement.

Slugsnack · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:20 am Post subject:

Stylo · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:12 am Post subject:

SetWindowsHookEx is what ur looking for
using the WH_KEYBOARD_LL hook type
you're hooking the keyboard and whenever a keybd message is arrived like WM_KEYDOWN, WM_SYSTEMKEY or however it called u can hook it and u can do whatever u want to after the key is sent

iPromise · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:56 am Post subject:

SetWindowsHookEx().