Adjust Tick Count

This utility uses DLL injection and API hooking to intercept calls to the ::GetTickCount API within any user process, and adjust the value returned to these processes.

The ::GetTickCount API returns the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since Windows was started as a 32-bit unsigned integer. This value rollsover every 49.7 days. Some of our applications were experiencing freezes after running for approximately 50 days, so I wrote this app as a way of forcing ::GetTickCount to rollover without having to wait for 7 weeks.

To use AdjustTickCount, extract the contents of AdjustTickCount.zip to your hard disk, and start AdjustTickCount.exe:

To change the value returned by the GetTickCount API, set the new value in the New tick count edit box, and click on the Set button. The screen below shows that we've set a new tick count of 0x40000000. Observe the difference between the True tick count and Adjusted tick count values.

To adjust the tick count of another process, simply tick the process(es) in the process list on the right hand side of the dialog. For example, if we launch ShowTickCount.exe (which is part of AdjustTickCount.zip), we can see the tick count incrementing once a second:

If we now select ShowTickCount from the process list, we'll see the ShowTickCount UI update to show the adjusted tick counts.

Tick count	Shows the return value when `GetTickCount` is called from the main module.
DLL tick count	Shows the tick count when `GetTickCount` is called from a statically linked DLL
COM tick count	Shows the tick count when `GetTickCount` is called from a dynamically linked DLL (requires manual registration of COMTickCount.dll (see AdjustTickCount.zip)).

How it works

When we tick a process in the process list, Adjust Tick Count injects AdjustTickCount.dll into the process. When the DLL is loaded, it redirects the GetTickCount API in all the loaded modules to our own implementation of the function. Now, whenever GetTickCount is called, our version of GetTickCount is called - we call through to the real implementation of GetTickCount and adjust the returned value before returning to the client.

Adjust Tick Count only hooks those modules loaded when AdjustTickCount.dll is injected into the process. If any modules are subsequently loaded (like a COM module), the GetTickCount API in that module isn't hooked. Under these circumstances, the dynamically loaded modules can be hooked by, detaching then re-attaching Adjust Tick Count to that process (i.e. untick, then re-tick the process in Adjust Tick Count's process list).

Compatibility

Adjust Tick Count runs on the following platforms:

Windows NT4 (SP6)
Windows 2000
Windows XP Professional