Very new to this...

[Michel]

Hi ur next,

Maybe it would be easier for you to begin working with IDA on "dead listing" :
If your file isn't packed, you have a good chance to see some messages like " Enter serial number", "Invalid serial number, please try again ", " days left"... and so you can go up, find the calls, the conditional jumps etc.

Trying to determine what the prog is doing "on the paper" will be a very good exercise for your intuition and asm knowledje...

"Dead listing" methode go naturally to patching the prog : you can for sample bypass the test verifying a date or a serial, but if you want to find THE working serial, this methode is often very hard : it is more usefull to work with a debugger like Ollydbg.