Don't look to solve the piracy problem in an absolute fashion - meaning, don't think that you can prevent people from hacking out your security measures. They

Don't look to solve the piracy problem in an absolute fashion - meaning, don't think that you can prevent people from hacking out your security measures. They can and they will. Starting with this frame of mind will help you to spend far less time (and money) on a problem that you can't really control. Some people actually recommend not worrying about piracy of your software: think about it for a minute. You're going to need distribution and marketing for your product. If it's a good product that will be useful to people, then pirates will spread 'the word' for you for free. If you then ensure to update the product frequently, you have a chance of keeping pirates out of date - inconveniencing them, so to speak - and they will likely crack and re-release the new version (more marketing for you). The frequent product updating also helps to reassure your potential and paying users that you are actively supporting your product. They need to see this to know that they're getting their money's worth. :) As far as how to do patching, likely whatever installer utility you are using supports patching, so you should look into that some more.