TechTool Pro 2.5.1 problems: MicroMat confirms an issue with copy protected applications; offers work-arounds

Jeff Baudin (of MicroMat) at least partially confirms our initial report of problems with launching applications after installing TechTool Pro 2.5.1. It is due to a conflict between TechTool Pro's new Trash Cache feature (an "undelete" feature new in this version of TechTool Pro) and certain other applications, especially ones that use a form of copy-protection:

If it's what we think it is, it's not related to the TechTool Pro application or any drive repairs it executes. It's related to the Trash Cache feature of the Protection cdev. As you already know, TC "captures" files that are deleted by either the user or an app or the system. It saves a copy of the file to an invisible TC folder on the HD so the user may be able to retrieve that file if needed. Some programs may not like the fact that we backup files they wanted to delete. We recently found a definite problem with the copy-protection scheme used in Bias' "Peak" sound editor. TC seems to trick the copy protection code into thinking that the drive contains an illegal copy of the program, forcing the user to reinstall the program. The program isn't damaged or anything, it just appears that copy protection doesn't like the fact that there's a backup of a particular temp file created by the program. We suspect that the same problem may exist with Quark and we're looking into that now. We've seen absolutely no problems with SimpleText. We suspect this issue may only affect copy-protected programs.

If you have problems here, Jeff suggests one of two work-arounds:

Turn off the Trash Cache master switch in the Protection CDEV. This will stop any problem completely, though is somewhat drastic, since they'll lose the benefits of TrashCache.

Create an "Exception" for the problem application. Here's how:

1. Open the TechTool Protection cdev and select Trash Cache.
2. Click the "Display Exceptions" button.
3. Click the "Add..." button.
4. Navigate to the application in question and select it.
5. When the application appears in the exception list, select it and press the "Change..." button.
6. Change the Name option to "any name."
7. Clear the TYPE CODE field.

Trash Cache will now ignore, and therefore not backup, any file with the same creator code.