Thanks for all your feedback on last week’s Mac Treat about how to open unidentified apps. Many of you suggested a less permanent (and more cautious) approach:
Robert wrote:
“Another way to open apps from an ‘unidentified developer’ is to right click on the download and select ‘show’ in Finder (or just go to your Downloads folder). Then, right click to open. You will be prompted to open or not.”
Matt wrote:
“Regarding this tip, I think the average person should not turn off the unidentified developer warning. It’s a useful line of defense against trojan horses and other nasty malware. As an alternative, you can right-click or control-click on the application and select Open from the popup menu. You will still be warned that the developer is unidentified, but you will be given the option to open it anyway. And once you open an application once you will not be warned about that application again.”
Jeff wrote:
“The reason for the Unidentified Apps balk is for security — specifically called Gatekeeper. I’m not sure that disabling it is the best recommendation you can make to the general public, as it disables one check & balance against malware, viruses, etc.. Disabling it is NOT recommended by most folks. A more simple option is to right click or CTRL-Click on the app and choose ‘Open’. You have to do this every time you open an Unidentified app, but how often does that happen, really? It’s a much safer way to go.”
Great points — thanks so much for the feedback!