MacinSpot

Mac OS X is great but sometimes, just like Windows, it flakes out and you need to quit some tasks that look like they have taken off towards Never Never Land. Mac OS X is smart and can actually recognize when an application is losing it. Since applications are running independently and don’t really rely on the operating system as much as Windows programs do, you can still manage to open a menu or even another application. In some cases you will never know an application stops responding until you come back to that application and try to do something with it. In this case let me show you how to end it.

If you click and hold on the icon in the dock you will find that this menu pops up:

If this menu does indeed pop up, you are in good shape. Where it says quit at the bottom of the menu, if the application is not responding, this will change to “Force Quit.” If you are unable to access this menu try going to the Apple Menu and scrolling down to force quit. Alternatively you can hit command+alt+escape to get this same box:

You can, from here, select the application you wish to force quit, then click relaunch to try and restart the application. If things seem to be going a little more berzerk than that, and you want to restart but something is timing you out, preventing your restart. Open the Apple menu and hold down the shift key. You will see the force quit menu item turn into “Force Quit Finder” if you are in the Finder. Holding down the shift key while making that selection will force quit which ever application you are in.

Select this, then restart your computer. Everything should be back to normal. It is a good idea to restart your computer every couple of weeks at least. This is a good habit to be in.