Disable the “application downloaded from the internet” warning

If you’re like me and download files from the internet frequently from places that are positively safe you may want to disable the annoying “… is an application downloaded from the internet. Are you sure you want to open it?” warning message that appears when opening the files.

It’s especially a hassle if you want to open multiple files because this warning message won’t allow you to and you will have to open each file individually.

To disable the warning message in Mac OS X, open Terminal and enter this command:

xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine ~/Desktop

Replace ~/Desktop with whichever folder you use to download your files. You don’t have to restart, it takes effect immediately. Unfortunately you have to run it every time you download fresh files, so I created an Automator script that runs this Terminal command. It’s attached. You can place it in your dock and click it to run.