How to open files from unknown developers without a warning in OSX?

Question

I believe I have too much security on my mac. Whenever I try changing a file name or install a program I have to enter my laptop's password. Moreover, I cannot quickly access downloaded programs because they are from unidentified developers, and I must right-click > open in order for me to run them. That is really frustrating. Do I need to my laptop to be THAT secure (due to recent malware attacks on Macbooks ? ) Can I chance the settings to have it a bit more flexible ?

Platform : Mountaion Lion Retina Macbook Pro

Answer 1

You can disable Gatekeeper in System Preferences:

This removes the warnings about opening files downloaded from the internet:

defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices LSQuarantine -bool false

It doesn't affect the dialogs about opening applications for the first time though.

You can run Finder as root with osascript -e 'quit app "Finder"' && sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder, but it's not really meant to be done permanently.

Answer 2

When you receive a message that indicates you are prevented from opening an app from an unidentified developer, to open from Safari you can:

(1) click on the download icon (the down arrow in the top right corner of Safari.

(2) right click on the file to open;

(3) select "Show in Finder";

(4) in Finder, right click on the file;

(5) select "open"

(6) confirm open

Answer 3

You can make an AppleScript droplet to clear quarantaine status on items. From elsewhere on the internet:

on open paths
    set xattr to "xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine"
    repeat with path in paths
        set xattr to xattr & space & quote & POSIX path of path & quote
    end repeat
    do shell script xattr
end open

Open Applescript, paste the text, save as an Application. To use, drop files onto the app, making sure you drop ZIPs or DMGs instead of the files they contain. If you already expanded the ZIP and it contained an app, you won't be able to use the droplet with it.

(http://www.tonymacx86.com/mac-os-x-support/104276-simple-applescript-droplet-prevent-gatekeeper-warnings.html)

What this basically does is use the xattr command to clean the quarantaine status on the file you drop on top of the applet.

You can extend the script to "open" the file after clearing it, see the AppleScript documentation to see how to do that.