Step #3: The first run of protected application

The licensing system is initalized, so we can compile the VMProtect project and run the protected file. We should see the following after running:

C:\test>dummy_app.vmp.exe
serial number is bad
state = SERIAL_STATE_FLAG_INVALID

Run depends.exe application and see that our application doesn’t use VMProtectSDK.dll. That means that VMProtect embedded licensing module to the application. You may see a list of used DLLs in VMProtect: open the protected file, and use “Properties” item from the “File” menu.

Our application reads serial number from the serial.txt file. As the file doesn’t exist now, our application reads nothing and the licensing module receives empty string as a serial number. Empty string is not a correct serial number, so we need to generate one. Let’s switch to the “Licenses” tab and create a serial number. Serial number generation is described here. We’ll generate a simple serial number without limitations.

Upon generation, click the “Copy Serial Number” button, create the “serial.txt” file near the application and paste the serial number there. Then run the application again. You should see that the serial number is accepted:

C:\test>dummy_app.vmp.exe
serial number is correct, calling foo()
I'm foo
done

The licensing module accepted our serial number. In the next step we’ll try to add some limitations and see what happens.