# microsoft/Detours

Detours is a software package for monitoring and instrumenting API calls on Windows.  It is distributed in source code form.

Repository: https://github.com/microsoft/Detours
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/detours
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: hacktoberfest, microsoft
Last push: 2026-08-24T17:01:16+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3605, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6364, forks 1165 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:42.855982+00:00)

## What it is
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
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: monitoring, security, reverse-engineering, developer-tools
- domain: operating-systems, developer-tools, security, windows
- platform: windows, cpp, c
- tags: api-hooking, instrumentation, interception, binary-rewriting, native-code

## Member repositories
- microsoft/Detours (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:42.855982+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:45:14.003072+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/microsoft/Detours (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:42.855982+00:00, sha a8c8b6bd3f11)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.