There’s an easy way to bypass Mountain Lion’s security measures when you want to quickly use an application without disturbing Gatekeeper in the System Preferences panel. The guide below describes it.
By default, Mountain Lion will only allow users to install applications from trusted sources.
In Apple’s view, there are only two sources for applications that are deemed malware free: the Mac App Store, and the developers who took the time to sign their apps with a Developer ID from Apple.
Anything that doesn’t meet this criteria doesn’t get installed on OS X, unless you specifically tell it that it’s allowed to do so.
And you can do this in two ways, one of which is simpler than the other. The first method is described in our initial OS X Mountain Lion tip, “Installing Applications Restriction-Free.” The second one is outlined below.
Note: only use this method of installation when you are absolutely sure the app is malware free. Step 1 Download your application. If you double-click it without having modified your security settings, the following dialog will appear.
Step 2 Don’t be alarmed. This is the default behavior I was talking about earlier. What you can do here (yes, this step is optional and mostly just informational) is you can hit the question mark sign for Help. Another dialog will appear, with Apple telling you that you can manually override the Gatekeeper settings in Security & Privacy prefs.
By choosing Open from the shortcuts menu, the company says that the app will be saved as an exception to the settings, which means that you’ll be able to open it again in the future, just like any authorized app.
Step 3 To open the app from the shortcuts menu, simply right-click / Control-click its icon and choose open, as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 4 When prompted, select Open, and your app will launch.
Check out other Mountain Lion tips in the related links below, and give us a nudge if you’re looking for something in particular that needs a tutorial.
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