An old 'new newbie learning how to hack (again!)

I'm trying to crack an application related a consultancy job, but I'm newbie (a long, long, long time ago I knew more, but it was in DOS age) and I haven't many time to learning many things about it. So, after a quickly search, I found Windbg, but, sinceraly, it's piece of bullshit. I wasted my entire day trying to break the key checking mechanism using the Windbg, but it doesn't help me much.

OllyDbg

If you need a good (excelent!!!) software to crack (or to do reverse engineering), try the OllyDbg - it's fantastic: easy to use, intuitive, useful, and powerful! OllyDbg is shareware, but you can use it without paying nothing, if you want (or need).

Using Win32SDK Help and Windows Symbols with OllyDbg

OllyDbg automatically recognizes symbols and when you want, it launchs the Win32Help to the specific topic of the symbol!

If you need the Win32SDK help files, download it, here: win32hlp. If you use the Windows Vista, you need to download the Win32Hlp.exe from Microsoft.

Also, the Microsoft Windows Symbolic Information can be found at Download Windows Symbol Packages from Microsofot.

Tip: Troubles/Failures when Installing/Uninstalling Applications

Today I need to update my Sun JDK to the latest release on my desktop machine running Windows Vista 64, but when I tried to install the JRE I got the error:
Error 1723. A DLL required for this install to complete could not be run.

I saw in the Event Log that the error was about a non existent file named regutils.dll. I tried to delete some entries in the Registry, but it doesn't help me. I tried to uninstall all my JDK/JRE versions, but no success. I tried to use one or two Registry Cleaners, but, again, no success.

Windows Installer CleanUp

So, after to read, to try and to fret my head - two hours later - I found a small utility from Microsoft to erase (cleanup) the Windows Installer database for a specific application package.

If you have some application that doesn't install never or desinstall and nothing else help you, and you are thinking to reinstall your OS, try the Windows Install Clean Up before do it... It is simple to use and works (for me) fine.

The utility works to 32 and 64 bit OSes. It can be used to remove the installer data about any application that uses Microsoft Installer machinery, including, non Microsoft applications. Read more at the Microsoft Knowledge Base article: kb290301 - Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.

Needing more help, read How to resolve Common "Windows Installer" Problems and Error Codes.