What tools do I need?
[Cracking 4 Newbies]
Before starting!
This essay is for knowledge purposes only!!
Software developers spend much time in making their programs. They live from the money we give them!
Please buy good software!!
SoftICE
This is the core tool of a cracker! Without it you're nothing. SoftICE is a debugger that loads when Windows starts. After that, it can be popped-up anywhere. Even if you're playing a game. It does not slow the system and is compatible with almost every program. Have it or get lost :-)
W32DASM
This is an easy-to-use simple disassembler. It converts a .EXE file to a list (named 'dead list') full of assembler instructions. This is also an indispensible tool while cracking!

IDA Pro

The most powerful disassembler there is! Often feared by newbies, adored by old-leeto crackers! Most newbies start off with w32dasm and move on to IDA later on. But you could as well start with IDA, it would be just a little bit more difficult (?)
Hex Workshop - Hiew
These are both hex editors. Their purpose: changing a .EXE when you cracked it. Don't bother if you don't understand what I mean, it 'll become clear later on. I use 2 hex editors: Hiew (or Hackers View) and Hex Workshop. Hiew is a very very powerful DOS hex editor (I use it if the changes I have to make are whole instructions) and Hex Workshop is a powerful and easy to use Windows hex editor. But it's not as powerful as Hiew.
Other important tools

The four tools above were the ones every cracker needs. Here I tell you what other tools I use and what they do.

Regmon: Monitors reads and writes to the Windows registery.
Filemon: Monitors reads and writes to files in Windows.
Procdump: Used to unpack programs or to dump files from memory to harddisk
FrogSICE: Tool used to hide SoftICE from programs that don't like it.
Windowse: Little program that displays important information on everything your mouse crosses. It's commonly used to get the handle (a unique hexnumber that identifies every part of a program) of nagscreens.
IceDump: SoftICE addon that allows you to dump from memory to harddisk. It's often used for manual unpacking.
Smartcheck: debugger especially developed for Visual Basic programs.
Endnote:
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