SoftICE - the very 'basics'. SoftICE - the very 'basics' You've just downloaded SoftICE, read 101 different tutorials and finally selected a target, the time has come to make your first forays into the world of reverse engineering. This guide describes the very basic first few steps you should take to configure your SoftICE to the task at hand. Where appropriate I'll highlight the subtle differences between Windows 95/98 & Windows NT installations, setup.exe beckons.

Softice 4.05 W/Patch&Serial, Currently working on my XP Home SP3. It didn't work for me the first time, I pressed Ctrl+D and nothing showed up. You'll have to mess around with the registry keys a bit if this happens. Inside is a registry troubleshooting guide if it gives you this problem too. Many downloads like Softice 4 may also include a crack, serial number, unlock code or keygen (key generator). If this is the case then it is usually made available in the full download archive itself.

Installing SoftICE 1. Running setup.exe launches the installation, shortly afterwards your first dialog box will be the 'Welcome', explaining the NuMega copyright law, a click away is the full License Agreement, the terms of which you will of course accept. Next up will be the 'please insert your name, company & serial number' dialog.

All of these fields are self-explanatory, so fill them in not forgetting to use your serial number supplied with the software. If you should lose your serial you might consider using the DevStudio generator temporarily whilst you wait for NuMega to confirm your original, when you have received it you can simply edit the change in your registry. Moving on swiftly, you'll be asked next to select an installation directory, Windows 95/98 users beware here of the LFN (long file name) trap, install to C: SoftICE if you want to be safe. Under NT this is not an issue. Your next choice will be the 4 components checkboxes, unless you are keenly trying to save disk space I suggest installing everything, now might be a good time to make a mental note of the 'Online Books'. The final stage is perhaps the most perilous, the 'Select Display Adapter' dialog. SoftICE does now (version 4) support a pretty extensive list of display adapters and if your lucky the installation program will select an appropriate adapter to test.

Selecting Test is a pre-requisite for the installation to proceed, if you are stuck at the end with only Standard VGA SoftICE will appear as a window (similar to a DOS box). This is not ideal and is likely to give you severe eye-strain so consider changing your graphics card.

If you are running an NT installation, the next dialog will prompt you when to run SoftICE, Boot/System/Automatic or Manual, unless you have a pressing need not to start SoftICE at start-up I recommend the boot option. After this you'll be invited to select your mouse type, consult your PC's manual for details, the mouse support in SoftICE is really a cosmetic feature.

In Windows 95/98 installations you'll next be asked whether setup should modify autoexec.bat, again like Windows NT unless you have some pressing reason not to have SoftICE always loaded allow the program to modify autoexec.bat. Upon your next click SoftICE will install, although you'll have to reboot to make it active. Before you go for the big switch lets do some configuration. Configuring SoftICE Setting up SoftICE for reversing is quite different between Windows 95/98 & NT. Under NT SoftICE is configured using the SoftICE Loader (select from your Start Menu).

Selecting Edit/SoftICE Initialization Settings is the way to go. The general tab shows the initialisation string which you'll probably want to change, (read the manual for detailed descriptions of the various switches), my own is as follows:- CODE ON; FAULTS OFF; I3HERE OFF; WD 3; WF; X; The 2 other important tabs are the Symbols & Exports. If you possess the SDK for your OS as I do, you can use SoftICE's loader to translate the SDK's.DBg files into corresponding.nms files, which can then be loaded by SoftICE (if you wan't these files then e-mail me and I might be persuaded to give them to you). Empire earth game. Those without the SDK should use the exports tab to add the following dll's from their%WINNT%/System32 directory:- advapi32.dll, comctl32.dll, comdlg32.dll, gdi32.dll, kernel32.dll, msvbvm(50/60).dll (if present), msvcrt.dll (if present), ole32.dll, oleaut32.dll, shell32.dll, user32.dll, version.dll. Under Windows 9x SoftICE's options are controlled by the file winice.dat which you can open with any text editor, NotePad will do.