TechTool Pro v. 3.0.1
Micromat Inc.
$97.98, upgrades $49.95
TechTool Pro Quarterly $99/year
Available at the Applelinks Store

Review by Gary Coyne

People who perform repair jobs around the house often have more than just one screwdriver, more than one wrench, and more than one pair of pliers. The reason for the variety of tools is because it is all too often that one tool fits or works better than another tool for any given job. It is for this reason that I like owning more than one disk repair program. The question is, should TechTool be one of those programs?

TechTool Pro is a sort of a Swiss Army Knife of tools that tests your computer in seven major categories: components, performance, media, peripherals, files, audio/visual, and communications. It has several other great features: it has a printed manual, free technical support (toll calls not included), and can still repair older (pre-PPC) computers.

TechTool Pro prides itself on performing the greatest number of repair tasks and examinations for the Mac than any other repair program. Specifically, Micromat lists on their web site that TechTool Pro can perform 44 tasks/benifits to Norton's lowly 12. Micromat claims TechTool to be "The Ultimate Computer Repair, Prevention, and Problem-Solving Utility for Every Macintosh User!"

Without a doubt, Micromat has improved the interface from the previous two versions. While still having a way to go to be a useful assistant to the user, at least it's not bewildering.

In life, a user pulls out a repair program after a crisis has presented itself: the computer is crashing too often, it won't boot up, something was thrown away that shouldn't have been, etc. In short, a repair program is brought in to resolve a crisis. While any repair program should be used before a crisis (in hopes of preventing such an event), it typically isn't. TechTool should be used before a crisis not only to help prevent a crisis, but also so the user will be better prepared for how the program works. This is where TTP bogs down some as it is not necessarily obvious as to what to do when you first begin to confront the program.

Keep in mind that a good number of the tests that TechTool performs have nothing to do with a crisis--which is why knowing the program before a crisis can be critical.

The user is initially presented with two primary windows: the Navigation Window and the MultiTester. The Navigation Window displays every test performed by TechTool. These tests can be displayed in order of their category, whether they are selected (under the column Fav for favorites), or by name. When one double-clicks on any test, one can select preferences for how that test will be run.

Selecting any given test often shows one of the problems with TechTool Pro "out of the box" which is that the default settings for these tests tend to be set for what takes the least amount of time to run. Thus, as one sees for Surface Scan, the default settings are set to test for "Read Only," not the complete testing process of "Read/write." Likewise, the settings for what to do is for "Validate Only," not "Validate & Repair." So, if you don't have the test set properly to begin with, you may have your computer crank away for 15, 30, 90 minutes or more (depending on the type of test) only to find out that problems were found but nothing can be done until the test is run again from scratch but with the test reset to repair found problems as opposed to just letting you know a problem exists.

[On a side note, I wish that Macromedia had included bits of information explaining the individual tests on each test window. So, for example, on the Surface Scan test, the window should also explain that this test "examines the sectors on the Hard Disk and can lock out bad sectors."]

The Multitester allows the user to select from a variety of tests; click "Begin," and go have a cup of coffee or dinner (depending on how many tests you select). Whatever preferences one has selected in each test in the Navigator will be performed accordingly in the MultiTester. Unfortunately, the names of the tests in the Navigator do not necessarily correspond to the names provided in the MultiTester. So, it's not always straightforward an issue of exactly what tests are being encompassed by any given checked item. Please note that when the MultiTester window opens, everything below the "Options" triangle is closed from view. So,simply clicking on the "Begin" button can initiate a series of tests that may or may not have any significance to your needs at the time.

Curiously, in addition to the MultiTester is the Auto-Pilot which is also accessed from the Navigation Palette. Instead of clicking on any given test as one does with the MultiTester, one simply drags the desired specific test into the Auto-Pilot window and initiates the tests by clicking on the Begin button. The only difference I can discern between these two approaches is that in MultiTester one can click on a given type of test which could be inclusive of several tests whereas in Auto-Pilot, one can choose selected tests from a test type.

There are several advantages with Auto-Pilot over the MultiTester. With Auto-Pilot, there is no question of what test is being conducted as you select the tests and (ostensibly) have set the preferences to your needs while making the selection. In addition, one can set Auto-Pilot to "Stop on Errors," "Restart Computer," and "Shutdown When Completed." Finally, one can set Auto-Pilot to repeat any given tests multiple times before deciding that a problem does or does not exist. This could be very handy if you suspect a RAM problem that is inconsistent and want to perform repeated tests when you go to bed hoping that one of the tests will detect a failure.

One of the features lacking with Auto-Pilot is the ability to save sets. That is, by saving sets, one could save a selected block of tests for general monthly maintenance, one for every 6 month maintenance, one for crisis times, etc.

One of the new features long due in TechTool is Virus Protection and Repair. Unfortunately, TechTool only guards against standard virus' and does not even examine the more common macro-virus' like those attached to Word and Excel. Working at a University, I can't begin to state how significant an oversight it was to not cover the macro-viruses.

Initially when you run an examination of the Virus protection, TechTool examines all applications or all files on your hard disk. The concept is that once TTP has built a record of these files, it will only need to examine any "new" files/applications from then on. This is an excellent approach that significantly decreases subsequent examinations. You can also have TTP set to examine all removable medias upon insert. However, it is not possible to have a toggle key to turn the examination on and off as needed.

Some of the tests may seem questionable for a "repair" program but are still good to have. For example, one of the tests is called "Internet." You need to have your internet connection active to perform this test which consists exclusively of verifying that any given URL exists on the web and can "ping your host." Then, you're done. Using this test, one can verify that any given site is up and that communications between your computer and the server are proper. Don't bother to perform this test if there are no problems because it will only verify what is already obvious. But then again, all it can do is to verify as to whether the problem is with you or the server, but nothing more.

Other tests are handy for verifying basic things like screen accuracy. For example, there is a Video Geometry test that displays colors, shapes, rectangles and circles on the screen. If you have any concern that your monitor consistently is not providing a uniform display, this test provides you a wide variety of displays to examine.

Another test to point out is Software Conflicts. By running through a database, it looks for Minor, Major, and Serious Conflicts. For some reason it cannot look among the three conflicts at once and must run each one independently. Micormat is supposed to offer updates to these databases as well as the virus database/repair information, but at the time of this writing not only has no update appeared at Micromat's web site, there isn't any indication of where the files will be located at the web site once new ones become availble. Since the program came out in the beginning of August, it's likely that any updates will show up in the beginning of November in time for the first quarterly update (see below). Meanwhile, it's rather spooky expecting to see something and finding nothing.

Finally, other tests are good but, like the Virus Test, insufficient. For example, TTP provides Optimization. When you examine your hard drive, it provides a mulitcolored graph showing the Directory, Contiguous, Free Space, and Fragmented sections. It provides no numbers so the user is left to guessing at a visual indicator whether what they are looking at is a significant amount of fragmentation as to be concerned. What TTP also cannot do is to lay out the files on the hard drive for some level of optimizing performance as other optimizers do. [Now it's possible that the location of files DOESN'T make a difference for optimized performance, at least not anymore. Remember, screen savers were originally used to save screens from burn-in. Now they are used exclusively to have cool things to look at when you are not looking at a spread sheet. Unfortunately, the manual doesn't provide any information whether specific locations of file types are beneficial or not.]

Micromat provides an annual service called TechTool Pro Quarterly that for $99/year, will provide an updated CD (each quarter) with the latest version of TechTool Pro with all the updated accompanying files such as virus definitions and software conflicts.

Overall, TechTool Pro is worthwhile. At a minimum, it has tests that no other program can cover such as RAM, ROM, audio, video, and the many other tests that TechTool Pro provides. And, although the general disk/system/finder repair tasks that TTP has in common with other companies, I repeat my earlier statement that when your computer is down, you want every possible tool to recover. While there are a few inadequacies with the program, those by themselves shouldn't be deal breakers. They should be areas where Micromat can aim their next version.

Available at the Applelinks Store

November 20, 2008