Tutorials: Quitting out of Crashed Applications

There are a few things you can do to attempt to quit out of a crashed application on the Mac. Usually you will only have to go to step #2 with OS X, but with older OS you might need to continue.

1. Press Command+Period. This tells active processes to stop.
2. Press Command+Option+Escape (or, in OS X, go to Apple -> Force Quit). This forces an application to quit. If the screen comes up, choose to Force Quit, then immediately restart the computer normally.
3. Press Command+Control+Eject (computers with Apple Pro Keyboards) or Command+Control+Power Key (older machines and laptops). This forces the computer to restart.
4. Press the Reset button (the arrow) on the side of the computer. For some computers, this is a hole; use a straightened paperclip to press the button within.
5. Hold down the power button on the front of the computer for five seconds. This forces the computer to turn off.
6. Unplug the computer and plug it back in. Wait ten seconds before turning the computer back on.