Need to extend App_Controller

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hello

I'm a beginner in CI.
Im working on a project which requires me to extend the core CI_Controller class
I did the following:
1- Enabled hooks through config file.
2- modified the subclass_prefix to empty string, as I dont want to use any prefix in my custom class.
3- created my class file 'application/core/Front_Controller.php' which contains

Code:

class Front_Controller extends CI_Controller {
// my code here
}

4- added the following to 'config/hooks.php' file:

Code:

$hook['post_controller'] = array(
                                'class'    => 'Front_Controller',
    'function'  => '__construct',
                                'filename' => 'Front_Controller.php',
                                'filepath' => 'core'
                                );

but I couldnt use my class in ci, I get the following error:

Fatal error: Class 'Front_Controller' not found in C:\AppServ\www\....\application\controllers\front\home.php on line 3

Could anyone please help and tell me what is wrong as I must do it this way?

Thanks