microsoft/Detours

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

6364 stars · 1165 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

Microsoft Detours is a C++ library for intercepting, monitoring, and instrumenting Win32 API calls on Windows via function hooking and binary rewriting. It is distributed in source form and used by ISVs and Microsoft product teams.

Use cases

• hook win32 api calls in my application
• monitor which dll functions a windows process calls
• instrument native windows code for profiling
• redirect api calls to my own implementation on windows
• build a windows api tracer or debugger extension
• patch a loaded dll's function at runtime

When to choose

• you need low-level API interception on Windows NT-family systems
• you want a mature, MIT-licensed hooking library maintained by Microsoft
• you're building instrumentation, monitoring, or compatibility-shim tooling for native Windows apps

When to avoid

• you're building a Windows Store (UWP) app, which Detours cannot support
• you need API hooking on Linux or macOS
• you want a high-level managed (.NET) hooking solution

Facets

library · maturity stable

monitoring security reverse-engineering developer-tools operating-systems developer-tools security windows windows cpp c api-hooking instrumentation interception binary-rewriting native-code

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="microsoft/Detours")