Sounds like it's time to write a Windows driver that redirects all writes like this to a regular file. That way, apps keep working transparently, and their clever DRM scheme fails miserably.
Oh proprietary software vendors. Won't you ever learn that you can't stop "unauthorized use" on general-purpose hardware?
Ah but you can make it sufficiently difficult that people will pay for the legal version rather than take the time to download it and find a legal crack.
If it takes 3 months for a hot game to be cracked, you loose very few sales.
And yes, pirates will purchase the games if you make them difficult enough to crack.
Oh proprietary software vendors. Won't you ever learn that you can't stop "unauthorized use" on general-purpose hardware?