[Tutorial] How to create a keygen

This tut will teach you how to create a keygen with visual basic.


Description:
A keygen means a program that generate keys for a certain program.


Preparation:
Get Visual Basic if you don't have it (Download link)
Think of what should your keygen be (e.g. Windows Key Generator, Game Keygen ect.)
Plan on what you want to include in your keygen
Plan on what you should include in your keygen
[optional] Getting an icon for your keygen (You convert any image file to an icon file here).


Steps:
1. Create a project
Open Visual Basic and create a Windows Form Application. Name it as the keygen you want to make. In this tutorial, i will make a BF2 keygen, for example.


2. Edit the project properties
When you've done creating the project, now you have to change the project's properties. In the box at the bottom right hand side of the project, that's where you change the properties for everything. Click on the form and change the properties as below:
Text - Change it to the title of the keygen you want.
Icon - Changing the icon can make it looks more professional. If you don't want to show an icon, turn ShowIcon to False
FormBorderStyle - You can leave it there, or change to a style you like. Usually i change it to FixedSingle, because people won't be able to resize the program.


3. Adding items into your project
Now you should add some items into your keygen. These are the things you MUST contain in a keygen:
Button - To generate the key after you clicked it
Textbox - To show the key after you clicked the button
Title - Some texts can be the on the top of the keygen, but adding a picture as a title will make it looks professional

To add items into your keygen, look at the toolbox at the left of your project. Simply drag the item that you want and put it into your project. It will appear there, and you can put it in where you like.


4. Inserting your keys into the keygen
Now you can start inserting the keys into your keygen. These keys will be shown when you click the Generate Button.
Double click the Generate button and paste the following between "Private sub" and "End Sub" line:


TextBox1.Text = Int(Rnd() * 4)
Select Case TextBox1.Text
Case 0
TextBox1.Text = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
Case 1
TextBox1.Text = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
Case 2
TextBox1.Text = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
Case 3
TextBox1.Text = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
Case 4
TextBox1.Text = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
Case 5
TextBox1.Text = "XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX"
End Select

Replace the XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX things with the keys you want the program to show. (You can get some keys by using an other keygen, and put the keys of the other program in YOUR keygen )

5. Finalizing and building your keygen
Now you have already reached the last step of building your keygen! Press F5 and test whether the keygen is working or not. When you're done, click Build on the top menu and click Build {ProjectName}.

To see your built keygen, go to Documents\Visual Studio {version}\Projects\{ProjectName}\{ProjectName}\Bin \Rele
ase\{ProjectName}.exe

Copy the [Projectname].exe to your desktop. Congratulations! You just created your (First) Keygen!
Now you can upload it to the net to share it with others!

Some keygens i made with visual basic are in the attatchement!