Hooker:FAQ

Does Hooker has an uninstaller?

No, and it doesn't need one. All files will be stored in the same folder to where you unpack Hooker. It only comes as an archive, without installer/uninstaller.

Does Norton AV 2005 and Beta Defender have any compatibility issues using it on my own personal XP?

Only some anti-viruses and spywere detectors will see Hooker as a suspicious application, because it has a code that allows capturing keyboard activity. I don't know how Norton AV 2005 and Beta Defender will see it, you have to try it your-self. Several users have reported that Avast raises a virus alert when you try to access Hooker.

Read more in the Virus Alert article.

Does it run on start up?

By default, it runs only when you launch it. But, in the settings, there is an option to automatically run Hooker on startup.

Does it launch from a standalone executable? Or installs it-self to program folders?

It doesn't install it-self. There are 2 files required: "Hooker.exe" and "HookLib.dll". They will stay and run from the folder to where you initially unpack them. "Hooker.exe" is the main executable, while "HookLib.dll" library will be loaded dynamically into memory. If you think that Hooker will spread out like spywere/virus - you are getting a wrong impression of it, it doesn't spread out anywhere.

Is it possible to interpret captured BACKSPACE character literally and delete previously entered characters?

Due to non-linearity of the user input it is not possible to accurately reproduce the correct keyboard input sequence.

For example, user can navigate away or even change the keyboard entry by moving the cursor with a mouse or cutting out selected content via clipboard. There are many other scenarios which break the linearity of the keyboard input. In such cases, interpreting BACKSPACE character literally and deleting previously captured content will do more damage than help.

For this reason, in order to preserve as much of original user input as possible, it was decided to display BACKSPACE character as <BS> place-holder, without modifying already captured content.