Ahhh ok, thanks for the explanation. I checked out the link, it also had a good explanation on virtual address spaces... that was the element I wasn't understanding.

It's funny you guys are having those problems with XP. I'm running it on XP as well, and don't seem to be having any problems... aside from not being able to do what I want with it

...

Satyricon, thanks for the tip on the Tregsitry class. I noticed that the program was making some calls to my borland delphi in the registry, but I din't make the connection that it was a delphi program, duh . Would the fact that it uses advapi32 for the registry calls and that it uses standard api calls like RegQueryValue etc., be how you determine if it's calling the winapi registry calls directly? I guess, the question is, how do you determine, if they're using the Tregistry class?

As far as the validation code part... I was actually able to patch that part so it gave me a "licensed to ___" start up screen, and I thought I was in the clear, but Gabri3l brought to my attention that the prog actually checks the registry in the protection routine before it even starts to display anything or run the program. So, I'm aware of that code, but it didn't totally help me, because I wasn't able to get the serial out of it. Hope that makes sense. If you're seeing something else there that I'm not seeing (very likely) I'd definitely be all ears.

Thanks guys, for all your help. You guys are really cool.
Lorn