Subclassing & Hooking with Visual Basic offers developers a unique way
to customize Windows behavior.Windows is a message-based system. Every
action you request creates one or more messages to carry out the action.
These messages are passed between objects and carry with them
information that gives the recipient more detail on how to interpret and
act upon the message.With Subclassing and the Windows hooking mechanism
("hooks"), you can manipulate, modify, or even discard messages bound
for other objects within the operating system, in the process changing
the way the system behaves. What kinds of results can you achieve using
the power of subclassing and hooking? Here are just a few of the
possibilities:
Along with this power comes responsibility; Windows is very unforgiving
if subclassing and hooking are used incorrectly. Subclassing & Hooking
with Visual Basic demonstrates the various techniques for intercepting
messages bound for one or more windows or controls: the intercepted
message can be left in its original state or modified; afterwards, the
message can be sent to its original destination or discarded.For both VB
6 and VB.NET developers, Subclassing & Hooking with Visual Basic opens
up a wealth of possibilities that ordinarily would be completely
unavailable, or at least not easy to implement.
