If you’re like me and are a savvy computer user, the new Safari download nag ("Are you sure you want to download this item?") probably drives you batty. Fortunately, there is a way to kill the nag. The kind folks over at Insanely Great Mac posted a blurb about Taboo 0.3, a small utility that does away with the nag. As a bonus, it also gives you a couple much-needed nags you probably would find useful: a dialog that has you confirm you want to close a window with multiple tabs and one to confirm that you want to quit (useful if you accidentally press command-Q instead of command-tab, for example).

WARNING! Do not remove the alert unless you know why it is there. The nag is there for your own protection. It is there so you are aware that you downloaded content that may have the potential to damage your computer, such as a malicious Dashboard widget Use Taboo at your own risk. That’s why I recommend that only power users with a sound knowledge of OS X attempt this hack. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Also killing the Download nag with Taboo requires entering a Terminal command. If you’re not comfortable with the terminal, I suggest you do the following:

If you want to get rid of the download nag but don’t mind manually opening the downloaded files and are a little skittish of the command line, open Safari Preferences and uncheck the “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading” checkbox. This may not be a bad idea anyway, at least until the Dashboard auto-install security hole is rectified. It will not give you the warning, but will not auto-install anything

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