Global mouse event handler

Question

I have the following code which I got from somewhere to capture mouse events. I modified it and made an event handler so that I can subscribe to it. The mouse events are captured correctly. But it never fires the event-handler. Can anybody figure out whats wrong with the code?

public static class MouseHook
{
    public static event EventHandler MouseAction = delegate { };

    public static void Start() => _hookID = SetHook(_proc);
    public static void stop() => UnhookWindowsHookEx(_hookID);

    private static LowLevelMouseProc _proc = HookCallback;
    private static IntPtr _hookID = IntPtr.Zero;

    private static IntPtr SetHook(LowLevelMouseProc proc)
    {
        using (Process curProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess())
        using (ProcessModule curModule = curProcess.MainModule)
        {
            return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, proc,
              GetModuleHandle(curModule.ModuleName), 0);
        }
    }

    private delegate IntPtr LowLevelMouseProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    private static IntPtr HookCallback(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
    {
        if (nCode >= 0 && MouseMessages.WM_LBUTTONDOWN == (MouseMessages)wParam)
        {
           MSLLHOOKSTRUCT hookStruct = (MSLLHOOKSTRUCT)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(MSLLHOOKSTRUCT));  
           MouseAction(null,new EventArgs());
        }
        return CallNextHookEx(_hookID, nCode, wParam, lParam);
    }

    private const int WH_MOUSE_LL = 14;

    private enum MouseMessages
    {
        WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201,
        WM_LBUTTONUP   = 0x0202,
        WM_MOUSEMOVE   = 0x0200,
        WM_MOUSEWHEEL  = 0x020A,
        WM_RBUTTONDOWN = 0x0204,
        WM_RBUTTONUP   = 0x0205
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    private struct POINT
    {
        public int x;
        public int y;
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    private struct MSLLHOOKSTRUCT
    {
        public POINT pt;
        public uint mouseData, flags, time;
        public IntPtr dwExtraInfo;
    }

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook,
      LowLevelMouseProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    private static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hhk);

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode,
      IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string lpModuleName);
}

I subscribe to it like this.

MouseHook.Start();  
MouseHook.MouseAction += new EventHandler(Event);

Function receiving the event.

private void Event(object sender, EventArgs e) => Console.WriteLine("Left mouse click!"); 

Update: I put together the working code in to a open source nuget package for user action hooks.

Answer 1

return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, proc, GetModuleHandle(curModule.ModuleName), 0);

This code will fail when you run it on .NET 4 on a Windows version earlier than Windows 8. The CLR no longer simulates unmanaged module handles for managed assemblies. You can't detect this failure in your code because it is missing the required error checking. Both on GetModuleHandle and SetWindowsHookEx. Never skip error checking when you pinvoke, the winapi doesn't throw exceptions. Check if they return IntPtr.Zero and simply throw a Win32Exception when they do.

The fix is simple, SetWindowsHookEx() requires a valid module handle but doesn't actually use it when you set a low-level mouse hook. So any handle will do, you can pass the handle for user32.dll, always loaded in a .NET application. Fix:

IntPtr hook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, proc, GetModuleHandle("user32"), 0);
if (hook == IntPtr.Zero) 
{
    throw new System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception();
}
return hook;

Answer 2

I just copied your code into a simple windows form and its working as you described it should. How are you using it exactly? Where are you starting and attaching the event?

And for completeness sake this is the code I ended up with - started from a simple C# form template

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            MouseHook.Start();
            MouseHook.MouseAction += new EventHandler(Event);
        }

        private void Event(object sender, EventArgs e) { Console.WriteLine("Left mouse click!"); }
    }

    public static class MouseHook
    {
        public static event EventHandler MouseAction = delegate { };

        public static void Start()
        {
            _hookID = SetHook(_proc);


        }
        public static void stop()
        {
            UnhookWindowsHookEx(_hookID);
        }

        private static LowLevelMouseProc _proc = HookCallback;
        private static IntPtr _hookID = IntPtr.Zero;

        private static IntPtr SetHook(LowLevelMouseProc proc)
        {
            using (Process curProcess = Process.GetCurrentProcess())
            using (ProcessModule curModule = curProcess.MainModule)
            {
                return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, proc,
                  GetModuleHandle(curModule.ModuleName), 0);
            }
        }

        private delegate IntPtr LowLevelMouseProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

        private static IntPtr HookCallback(
          int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
        {
            if (nCode >= 0 && MouseMessages.WM_LBUTTONDOWN == (MouseMessages)wParam)
            {
                MSLLHOOKSTRUCT hookStruct = (MSLLHOOKSTRUCT)Marshal.PtrToStructure(lParam, typeof(MSLLHOOKSTRUCT));
                MouseAction(null, new EventArgs());
            }
            return CallNextHookEx(_hookID, nCode, wParam, lParam);
        }

        private const int WH_MOUSE_LL = 14;

        private enum MouseMessages
        {
            WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201,
            WM_LBUTTONUP = 0x0202,
            WM_MOUSEMOVE = 0x0200,
            WM_MOUSEWHEEL = 0x020A,
            WM_RBUTTONDOWN = 0x0204,
            WM_RBUTTONUP = 0x0205
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        private struct POINT
        {
            public int x;
            public int y;
        }

        [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
        private struct MSLLHOOKSTRUCT
        {
            public POINT pt;
            public uint mouseData;
            public uint flags;
            public uint time;
            public IntPtr dwExtraInfo;
        }

        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        private static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook,
          LowLevelMouseProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);

        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
        private static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hhk);

        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        private static extern IntPtr CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode,
          IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        private static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string lpModuleName);


    }
}