Forcing applications to open in Classic

Applications containing both a Mac OS X native and a Mac OS 9 executable normally open in Mac OS X, but there might be occasions - if they depend on plug-ins or drivers that have not been fully ported to Carbon for instance - when you might wish to open them in Classic.

On PowerPC-based Macs running Mac OS X 10.3.9 or 10.4, Application Wizard lets you force these applications - no matter whether they display a Open in the Classic environment checkbox in the Finder's Info window or not - to open in Classic.

To open an application always in Classic, open the Application Wizard pane in System Preferences and click the Applications tab. Click the Add Application button, select the application in the displayed dialog and click Add. Select the Open in the Classic environment checkbox and click OK. When launched using Application Wizard the application will always open in Classic.

If you have applications you wish to open sometimes in Classic and sometimes in Mac OS X, you can specify whether to open them in Classic directly from the Open menu. To force an application to open in Classic, select it in the Open menu and press the Option key - if the application can be launched in Classic, its icon will switch to the Classic icon and Application Wizard will open it in Classic.

Application Wizard lets you launch any application running both on Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 in Classic, but please be aware that when forcing an application that has no Open in the Classic environment checkbox in the Finder's Info window to open in Classic, you run it under circumstances the developer might not have taken into consideration.