All right my first question is about cracking using Win32dasm and a hex editor (Hex Workshop). I'm trying to crack WinZip 8.0 (I'm just learning) and I've gotten to the point where when I run WinZip I can type in Name and Registration Number and it will bring up dialog about the license agreement and supposedly I am registered. But the program still says I'm unregistered and the popup screen still shows up in the beginning telling me to register. All I changed was three 'je's to NOPs... they all called the 'Incorrect information...' string. What else do I need to look for to register it? I've tried looking in the Windows registry, and I found where they put my Name and Reg #, but for some reason it's not seeing me as registered. Any help would be appreciated...

Also, I haven't used SoftIce yet and I'm looking to download it... I'm running WinME. I can't seem to find the SoftIce site and when I looked at protools.cjb.net I found a version for that should work for Win98. WinME supposedly runs all Win98 programs.. is that what I should get?

Thanks.

The reason that it is not saving the registration data is because even though you changed the compare to be unconditionally correct, it still stores the key you entered into the registry. You could either patch the calls at the beginning of the program or change which address it writes to the registry.

Also, Windows ME + SoftICE is a bad combination IMO. WinME is bad period IMO I would recommend either down(up)grading to Win98 or going to http://icedump.tsx.org for more information on how to run SoftICE under WinME.

Why is it a bad thing for the false registration info I provided to be in the registry? Does the program check if that info is incorrect when it loads too? If so, I have no clue how to fix that. Are there tutorials? If so, can someone give me a URL for one? I was trying to do it without a tutorial, but I've worked on two programs and I'm having the same problem with both.

Also, about SoftICE... is there a need to use it? I mean, are there programs that would be impossible to crack without SoftICE, or can I just use Win32dasm and a hex editor? Just wondering...

hehe.....so.....u want tuts for winzip eh?

I believe qferret.cjb.net will help you out in that respect *plug plug* ;-)

All of your tutorials, except for the cheat using just the hex editor , require the use of SoftICE. Isn't there a way to crack WinZip without SoftICE? I wanted to avoid using SoftICE until I understood Win32dasm and hex editing well enough.

Actually, i think it would be a better idea to get SoftICE working and start learning it. It can be very difficult to crack programs using only a dead listing from Win32dasm or IDA. Many times it's hard to tell specific details of what is happening in a piece of code, and you may miss things like the contents of certain memory locations and registers. Generally, you only start cracking with only a dead-listing once you have enough practice and experience to know what is going on in the asm code. Even then, it can still be a challenge and sometimes impossible! I'd suggest playing around with SoftICE and if you have any questions about using it, just ask away here and we'd be happy to help you!

What do I need to download from that icedump page to use SoftICE with WinME? And is there another debugger I can use? Will any of the other ones work better with WinME? Thanks..

search, search, search ;-)

ht*p://www.numega.com/support/knowledgebase/docs/1078.stm

...and I think learning to use SoftIce is definitely a good idea as, you get to actually see what's happening in the program line by line....a deadlisting is great IF you know assembly ;-)

Ok.. I want to get SoftICE. But I have a few REALLY stupid questions. First, where do I get it... I couldn't find it on www.numega.com, but it may be because I didn't look for very long. For some reason, that site will not load on my computer, but will on other computers. If anyone know why that is, tell me, because I can't figure it out... Every link I've seen so far to get the program has come up dead, so I can't figure out if it's my computer or the pages that are screwing up. I don't know... please help.

Hullo jforjunk,

Here's something that you should do.

* Get SoftICE. (of course.) But try to search from Google where the free downloads are. Protools is not good as it links to HAMBO which is out for as long as I know it (about 2.5 years now, I think!)

* Get w32dsm but use it for UNDERSTANDING and not CRACKING. Its good for cracking easy progs. It is a very BAD MISTAKE to try cracking the "correct" serialz apps using this disassembler. Simply because, disassembly was meant to show you which calls to patch and which jmps to nop. Its not, and CANNOT show you the correct serial in the memory like ICE does.

* You can also try Oledbg.exe (search in google) or TRW2000 1.23. First is legal and free and second is free (almost)

* Secondly, if you HAVE to use W32dsm for WinZip, I'd suggest you stop using it to find out the serial, but start using it to determine which procedures are actually validating the serial, both at start, middle and end.

You can also, of course, post here, as ever.

Regards.