PopPeeper crashes when old YDP Collins Dictionary program is running

[krzysiobal]

When this very old (from around 2000) YDP Multimedia Dictionary (Collins) is running, whenever I click any email on the list, Pop Peeper instantly crashes. Why is that?

I figured out there are three DLL files in the YDPDICT folder:
HOOK.DLL
Hooks.dll
KBDHOOK.DLL

If the Hooks.dll is renamed (or moved away) and the dictionary is started, it does not complain nor it's behaviour is affected in any way, but then the PopPeeper works fine.

[mjs]

To clarify, when you say quote: "whenever I click any email on the list, Pop Peeper instantly crashes." - that is to say when you click on a message in the POP Peeper Inbox (to read a message) - then POP Peeper crashes?

Please answer a few questions that might help to determine what the problem might be.

1) Is this a new problem? --- that is, was there a time pervious to this where the same situation did not cause POP Peeper to crash? (please provide as much detail as you can).

2) If it is a recent issue - when did it start?

3) If this issue has just recently started - have you tried doing a reboot of your computer?

4) Have you made any changes (about the time this issue started) to your computer (i.e. added software, updates etc.)

5) More specifically have you done any security updates or changes on your computer that would coincide with the start of this problem?

6) What Operating System are you using?

7) What version of POP Peeper are you using?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

[Jeff]

Keyboard hooks allow a program to intercept the keyboard messages from another program. e.g. malware can use this to steal passwords as you type them; not that this is keyboard hooks only purpose -- it can certainly be used for legit purposes -- I'm just giving you an idea of what it does. And I would say a dictionary program would have a legit reason to access another program's input. Hooks, in general, would allow other types of access; e.g. peeking at messages, possibly even removing or inserting its own; basically they can affect the behavior of the program that they're hooking into.

Whatever it's doing is apparently interfering with PP, but without investigating it specifically, I wouldn't be able to say why.

[krzysiobal]

I have just crated fresh system on Virtual Machine (Windows XP SP3) with just Pop Peeper (I downloaded the lastest version - 5.4.5) and the YDP Dictionary and the problem persists. Keyboard hooks are probably used to monitor any changes of the clipboard and then launch the dictionary with newly copier word.

It does not bother me very much, though just wondering why external application causes such trouble for your program.