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Asked: 2026-05-18T07:14:39+00:00

I’m trying to understand event hooks in C++. I know what an event is,

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I’m trying to understand event hooks in C++. I know what an event is, I’ve used them a lot in Java, C# and Javascript.

What I’m having trouble with is finding the documentation, and tutorials on stuff like global hooks, dll injection, global hooks without a DLL.

Lets say that I wanted to iterate through the browser tabis in FireFox .. would I need to hope that FireFox has an API for C++? Or lets say I wanted to do something when a user opens a new tab would I need to use a hook that FireFox would provide in their API?

The above is just an example so people know what I’m trying to learn/understand. Am I thinking on the right ines?

I seen a post on a forum and for the past 2 hours I’ve took an interest. I always say that a tricky challange, or a new challange, makes a stronger programmer.

Any resources, or any help, would be very much appreciated.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    C++ itself does not have events or hooks, but a lot of C++ libraries and frameworks implement them. For an example of generic events library, see Boost.Signals.

    Some of the implementations allow their events to be seen by other applications, but the API is application-specific (e.g. for Firefox, see XPCOM).

    Windows has a mechanizm of hooks that allows to monitor various events in its windowing system. However, it is an OS feature, not related to C++. As it’s a system mechanizm, all Windows applications are affected even if they don’t do anything for it. The documentation for Windows hooks can be found here. Also, since you mentioned “global hooks without a DLL”, see SetWinEventHook, which is a higher-level API than Windows hooks linked above and can be used with hook functions both implemented in DLLs or EXEs.

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