I have to disagree, at least for XenoCode 2005.
I've tried to do obfuscating or protecting or anything, and none of this worked.
If you increase "strength" power, then compression screws.If you change something else, then something else stops to work.And i didn't managed to link the .net framework in the app, so it can be redistributed without the .Net Framework, as they claim Xenocode does.I don't know if it's a DEMO limitation, but they say that the demo is full functional, but some nag screens appear.
Besides that, if you want simple obfuscation, use tool that ships with VS 2005.
It's a commercial programm, but the shipped version is it's "Community Edition".

Salamander is one of the best, but as you said is expensive, even if your project is not a hobby project..