How to ignore a mouse click in Windows? (C++) - c++

Question

I am trying to make a program that sits in the background that can ignore mouse clicks - outside of the program.
How do I tell Windows this through c++?
I already made the program recognize the mouse click. Just not how to ignore it.
The reason I need to do this is because my mouse has a flaw where it accidentally double-clicks (or more) when I only click one time.
So basically, when the program register that I click with the mouse, it will let the first click through, but then disable that button (ignoring every following clicks) for ~200 milliseconds.
If possible, I would like to avoid using any external libraries. Only the standard ones that comes with Visual Studio.
Thank you very much for reading!

Answer 1

You can use a low-level mouse hook:
// Variable to store the hook handle
HHOOK miHook;
// This is the hook procedure
LRESULT CALLBACK LowLevelMouseProc(int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
if(nCode == HC_ACTION) {
MSLLHOOKSTRUCT &msll = *(reinterpret_cast<MSLLHOOKSTRUCT*>(lParam)); // In there is more context if you need it
if(wParam == WM_LBUTTONDOWN) {
// Do your logic here
if(letsIgnoreThisClick) {
return -1; // This will make the click be ignored
}
}
}
return CallNextHookEx(miHook, nCode, wParam, lParam); // Important! Otherwise other mouse hooks may misbehave
}
// This is how you install the hook
miHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, reinterpret_cast<HOOKPROC>(&LowLevelMouseProc), hInstance, 0);
// And this is how you would remove the hook again
UnhookWindowsHookEx(miHook);
This code example can't be used as-is of course, but has to be adjusted to your needs and the individual parts have to be put in the right locations in your code.
Please also read the remarks section for SetWindowsHookEx. You are probably going to need to create a DLL where your function is located (you can load it from your main code). The hInstance in my example has to be the instance handle of the module which contains the hook procedure. Also you need to pump messages in order for your hook to work correctly!