by Reader Richard Patterson finds his way blocked when trying to launch a favorite application. He writes:
I have been using the Onyx utility for years to tweak the Mac OS. I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and downloaded a compatible version of Onyx. While I was able to download it I’m told that I can’t open it because I didn’t get it from the Mac App Store. What’s going on?
Though you’re unaware of it, you’ve just shaken hands with Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper feature. It works this way:
Gatekeeper is designed to prevent cootie-laden applications from releasing their bothersome payload into your Mac. It does this by offering three levels of protection. The most strict allows you to initially launch only those applications that you’ve acquired from the Mac App Store. The second level requires that you launch applications from either the Mac App Store or from approved developers. (This second option is the default setting.) And the least restrictive is the ability to launch applications that you’ve found any old place on the web. Some explanation follows.
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