This is a kwik-n-dirty demo that shows one way to make a password
protected exe.

This method does NOT afford any real copy protection... it merely
makes it very difficult for the average PC user to run a pw protected
exe without knowing the pw.

When you run the demo (PWSTUB.EXE) it shows a form with a button
[Select exe to PW protect]
and an edit box where you enter the PW you wish to use to protect your exe.

Just enter a new PW and then click to browse and select the exe... once selected
the exe will be wrapped inside a copy of the PWSTUB.EXE and the name will
be changed to the original exe's name and the now protected exe will replace
the original... be careful because there is NO way to easily remove the
wrapper once it is applied!  so make a copy of the original exe if you need
to!


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Now you may run the newly protected exe and it will ask for your PW.

Once you enter the PW the exe is extracted to the current dir and will
run. I had the demo extract to the current dir instead of something like
windows/temp so you can more easily keep track of what is happening. The
extracted exe is renamed with 'Temp_' appended... of course you would want
to extract to temp and use the original exe name when creating your own
final version of this app.

I have set the stub to remain running in a non-visible state... just waiting
for the user to close the exe... then it deletes the copy and halts...

You should open the dir that holds the pw protected exe so you can see all
this going on... It will make clear exactly what is happening. When you create
your own version of this there is really no need to keep the stub around...
just leave the copy of the exe in windows/temp... the average user won't find
it there :-)

p.s. You can set a default PW in the PWSTUB.EXE by entering your chosen PW
and double-clicking the edit box... the exe will alter its image on disk by
embedding the default PW.... then whenever you want to protect an exe the PW
is already entered :-)

..Gwen..