Force application to open in classic under 10.4.2

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Level 2

480 points

Force application to open in classic under 10.4.2

I've got a Carbon application that is somewhat old (from 2002) that won't run properly under Tiger or Panther. It starts up, but the GUI is all screwed up, making it unusual. When run on OS 9, it works fine. Running it in Classic works too. The problem is, I can't force it to open in classic. It seems like that option has been removed in Tiger, or at the very least, it's not available for this app for some reason. Even under Panther, where the option is available in the Get Info window, it's got a ➖ in the checkbox, and the checkbox can't be modified, and the app doesn't start in classic. The only way I've found to get to start in classic is to use a shareware application called Application Wizard.

Does anybody know of a way to force an application to open in classic under Tiger? I'm not afraid of a complicated hack or something, I just want to get this program to work. FWIW, the application I'm trying to use is MacTXLine: http://home.macvaerk.dtu.dk/~holdorf/MacTXLine1.0b3.sit (direct download link).

Thanks

Posted on Oct 20, 2005 8:17 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 20, 2005 11:29 PM in response to mduser63

Did you happen to venture back to the manufatures site and see if there is an update to the program to run in Panther or Tiger..
Many 3rd party App's do in fact update older software so it is usable in the newer Operating Systems..
It will work in classic if you will copy the Folder from OS9 into the OS9 Applications folder on the Mac HD in Panther.
Basiclly what you have done it sounds like is Installed the program and it is either in the Mac HD or OSX Applications folder and thus won't work unless it is in the OS9 Applications folder. If they have an update or upgrade for OSX it has to be in the Applications folder to work.....Don

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Answer 2

mduser63 Author

Level 2

480 points

Oct 21, 2005 12:32 AM in response to Donald Morgan

No, it hasn't been updated to run under Panther or Tiger. In fact, the download link for it on the developer's site isn't even working, there's a typo in the link. I tried copying the app into my Applications (Mac OS 9) folder, and running it from there, but it still opens as an OS X native port. Application Wizard can force it to open in Classic, so there must be a way to do that. I'd rather not pay for Application Wizard as it doesn't seem useful beyond forcing applications to open in classic, but maybe that's my best bet.

EDIT: I got it working. For some reason, under Tiger, the "Open in Classic Environment" checkbox wasn't showing up in the Get Info window, and in Panther the checkbox was sort of "locked." I used true OS 9 (on my 400 MHz PowerMac G4) to extract the app after noticing that I couldn't run in OS 9 the file I had extracted in Tiger using Stuffit 9. After copying the OS-9-extracted file to my Tiger machine, the "Open in Classic Environment" checkbox was available, and checking it works as expected. Now the app automatically opens in Classic and works perfectly.

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