Latest Snow Leopard security update breaks popular PowerPC apps like Quicken

As part of the Mac OS X 10.7.3 update released earlier this week, Security Update 2012-001 [release notes] for Snow Leopard broke compatibility with several Rosetta Power PC programs. The issue, as described on Tidbits, MacInTouch and on Apple Support Communities threads (here, here and here), causes some third-party programs to crash unexpectedly under Snow Leopard. This includes popular applications such as Quicken, Filemaker 7, Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office 2004 and X. There is a workaround solution that helps alleviate the issue, at least until Apple addresses it with another update, explained right after the break.

The problems appear to stem from Rosetta, a lightweight and dynamic binary translator (discontinued in Lion) that lets Intel-based Macs run programs written for PowerPC machines. Printing from programs that rely on Rosetta are no longer working and Excel 2004 also freezes when accessing the File > Open menu command. A partial fix includes the RosettaFix reversioner that replaces the files updated by Security Update 2012-001 with previous versions. The 10.7.3 update is not exactly a walk in the park for some Lion users, who reported numerous app crashes adorned by the CUI graphics. Apple acknowledged the problem and said it is working toward resolving it. Until a fix arrives, there are several solutions to tackle the problem, as 9to5Mac explained yesterday.