General question about low level system wide mouse and keyboard hooks that work in xp but not in windows 7 (NEW DETAILS)

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Hello all,

OLD CONTENT
Years ago I made a couple of services which used a dll to set a system wide hook to prevent the user to use the mouse or keyboard while our program was not loaded into memory (a kind of kiosk mode*).

I've tested the two services again in a windows XP virtual machine and they work perfectly.

I've tested both of them in Windows 7 and no way.

Anyone know about differences between system wide hooking in both operating systems?

*About kiosk mode and my specific needs:
- I need to auto logon into the computer. (already done by the machine software).
- After logon some services start, and after one service is started my application must be started (which is already done by the machine software).
- I need to work using administrator user. (need from the machine software).
- I don't want the user to be allowed to access the operating system unless a specific password is set into my application.
- I don't want the user to be able to move the mouse unless a specific password is entered in my application.

NEW CONTENT
As far as I've seen, if I start the hook from a normal app it works like charm, but if I start the hook from the service it fails miserably. This looks like services are not running in the "user space" anymore... I've tried also to use XYNTService to start the application normally from a service and the same result...

Any advice?

As always thank you in advance!

Posted 30-Jan-15 0:52am

Joan M

Updated 3-Feb-15 4:34am

v4

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Philippe Mori 30-Jan-15 12:40pm

Reconsider your decision. Not a good idea to do that anyway as it can cause additionnal failure points in the system. If you need kiosk mode, then why are you trying to reinvent the wheel?

Joan M 30-Jan-15 15:03pm

Yes, kiosk mode is probably what I need, I've tried to find out a guide on how to deploy the kiosk mode on a windows 7 computer and I've found several guys explaining tricks to do it, but it looks like not enough...
Those two hooks are preventing the user to use the mouse at all while our application is not loaded and also deleting all the keyboard shortcuts that are dangerous (alt+f4...).
Do you know of a good kiosk mode resource to start tampering with it?
Thank you!

Jochen Arndt 2-Feb-15 7:23am

Regarding the mouse you can try to disable/enable the device itself (not all drivers support this). This can be done using the SetupDixxx functions or using the devcon.exe command line utility from the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). When using this method you can also disable at shutdown so that the mouse is disabled at boot time until re-enabled.

Joan M 2-Feb-15 7:55am

I'll take a look at it this afternoon after reaching the office again! thank you Jochen.
My "problem" is that I'm making special machine prototypes and I try to keep the user away from configurations...
So I developed a couple of services that started automatically before the user logged in and that started those keyboard and mouse hooks, after my application started I disabled the mouse hook.
But... this is not working at all.
A pity, in XP have worked without touching a code line... :(

Mike Nordell 2-Feb-15 18:03pm

I wonder... could implementing your own GINA help? I.e. not even allowing any user but "your application" to log in (interactively)? That would void the need to "lock out" mouse and keyboard input. On the other hand, we have these clickable "Change keyboard language" and "Accessibility" icons even on the login screen in Win7. Could those interfere with your app, or could they perhaps even be useful?

As for the service working in XP but not 7, could it be due to stricter security in Win7 (probably also Vista)? Maybe grab a copy of a checked Win7 (should be readily available from MS) and attach a serial or 1394 debugger?

Joan M 3-Feb-15 10:35am

As far as I know Mike the GINA option disappeared on Windows 7...
Anyway, I've noticed that the issue is not the global hook but the service and the way it interacts with the user desktop layer... I've added new details in the question itself...

Mike Nordell 12-Feb-15 23:06pm

GINA is gone? Aww, sh*t. There goes that idea. :-)

"but if I start the hook from the service it fails miserably"
Bingo!
Indeed, AFAIK services no longer have the "interact with desktop" privilege (not that I ever found it documented, but it's claimed to be there). That's most likely the problem.

On Windows 7, you could possibly use the (new to 7 I think, though it might also have been in Vista) - "Manage" your computer. Select Task Scheduler->... There you can add triggered actions, and in your case I'd say that triggered action is "User Logon" abd action is "Start executable" (I made up the names, but they are logical).

That way you could communicate with your actual service the credentials (and possibly HDESKTOP), and let the service interact with the interactively logged on user, using its credentials.

Please note I have no actual experience with this, I'm just trying to find a potential solution to your problem.

If this works, I expect an Article from you, here on CodeProject about it! :-)

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Frankie-C · Answer 1 · 2015-01-30T03:19:00

Solution 1

Maybe this helps?
Not a good new anyway... :-(

Posted 30-Jan-15 3:19am

Frankie-C

Updated 30-Jan-15 3:20am

v2

Comments

Joan M 30-Jan-15 9:44am

Not at all... the registry settings are not helping and I don't plan to create a separate thread...
I'm looking into raw input, which it doesn't look like what I do need... but...