Project Overview

• Description: Native Windows injector + hook that extracts Live Captions text from the Microsoft Live Captions engine and renders a compact console UI while forwarding snapshots via a named pipe.
• Components: Loader (injector + console UI) and HookCore (DLL that hooks the caption-rendering function).

How it works

• Injection: Loader locates LiveCaptions.exe (or opens Live Captions settings if not running), then injects HookCore.dll into that process via CreateRemoteThread + LoadLibraryW.
• Hooking: HookCore waits for microsoft.cognitiveservices.speech.extension.embedded.sr.runtime.dll, locates the export GetUnimicDecoderNBestDisplayText, and installs a MinHook detour.
• Extraction: In the detour, the code reads a text pointer at offset TEXT_OFFSET (defined in dllmain.cpp) from the engine object, constructs a std::wstring snapshot, and sends it to the injector via the named pipe \\.\pipe\LiveCaptionPipe.
• Rendering & Commit Engine: Loader runs a pipe server, receives text snapshots, applies a "humane commit" algorithm (punctuation/length based) and renders active text + recent history in a simple console buffer.

Security & Privacy:

• Because this project hook into RAM when Live Captions is running and extract text from there, it is considered at a malware by Windows Defender and some antivirus software. You may need to whitelist the project folder or built binaries to avoid false positives.
• And for using in user mode, i have added code to set DACL permission for AppContainer read/execute on the DLL path before injection. But still, some antivirus may detect it as malware.
• If you do not trust the release, please build from source or check the SHA256 checksums in SHA256SUMS.txt. cmd for checking SHA256:

CertUtil -hashfile .\x64\Release\Loader.exe SHA256
CertUtil -hashfile .\x64\Release\HookCore.dll SHA256

Build

• Open: Open Native.sln in Visual Studio (target x64).
• Note: In my VS 2022 setup, I had to manually use the MinHook include/lib paths to project by editting the lib name from libMinHook-x86-v141-mt.lib to libMinHook.lib
• Configuration: Build x64 + Release (ensure both Loader and HookCore are built x64).
• Output: Built binaries appear under Release/.

Run

• Ensure Live Captions is enabled in Windows.
• Run the injector from the Release folder; if LiveCaptions.exe is not running the injector will open the Live Captions settings and wait.
• Example (PowerShell):

cd .\x64\Release\
.\Loader.exe

• Privileges: If injection fails, run Loader.exe elevated (Administrator). Ensure bitness matches target process (x64 vs x86).

Configuration & Tuning

• Text pointer offset: Adjust TEXT_OFFSET in dllmain.cpp if the engine layout changes.
• Target DLL / Function: Modify the targetDll name or the export name GetUnimicDecoderNBestDisplayText in dllmain.cpp to match engine updates.
• Pipe name: Pipe is \\.\pipe\LiveCaptionPipe (both sides use this name).