How to Force Quit Apps that Not Working on Windows and macOS? Everything is fine until something goes wrong. You click the same button several times but the application does not respond.
Sometimes the cursor changes shape and makes you understand that this app has moved on to a better life. But there it is. It doesn’t work but it doesn’t go away either.
You try to close the app but he ignores you. And it is that sometimes closing blocked applications is not easy. And that’s when it’s time to force close and force close those apps.
Sometimes it’s enough to press the usual keys or click on the usual buttons or menus. But it’s not always like that. For various reasons, terminating unresponsive apps becomes an odyssey. The ultimate solution is to restart your computer. A reboot fixes almost everything. But there are other less drastic solutions.
We review all the possible and recommended ways to close apps on Windows and macOS. we will also see how to force close these apps that refuse to disappear. Sooner or later, you will reach your goal without having to restart your PC or Mac, which is problematic if you have documents or other applications open.
Close apps on Windows
Let’s start with the easy. To close applications in Windows, we normally have two ways. The first is by clicking on the close icon, which is usually an X. This icon is usually found in the application window, in the upper right corner. If you use the keyboard instead, you can speed up closing with the key combination ALT+F4. This is how Windows applications are closed in most cases.
Another way to close applications in Windows is to right-click the application icon on the taskbar. A context menu will open displaying various options. Among them, the option closes the window.
You can also right-click on the window title bar and you will see the option Close. And if you hover over an app icon in the taskbar, you’ll see the window thumbnails open to close them separately.
If you are on Windows in tablet mode, you can try to close the app by swiping it down from the screen. Click on an empty space at the top of the window and drag. This will close the app. Continued with the tablet mode if you press the keys Window + tab you’ll see thumbnails of open windows with their corresponding X-shaped close buttons.
Close Apps on macOS
If you’re a Mac user, closing apps in macOS is also relatively easy. The fastest way is to press the keys Command + Q. Or go to the menu bar, click on the drop-down menu with the name of the application and select Get out of….
A common confusion on Mac when you arrive from Windows is to want to close applications by clicking on the icon Close red in color. It is located in the upper left corner of open windows. It is used to close, but only that open window, not the whole application.
You can also close apps in macOS by right-clicking their Dock icon and then pressing to go out.
Force Quit Apps on Windows
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve come across an app that ignores you when you try to close it. It’s not often, but when it does, it’s a nuisance. A possible solution is to restart your computer, but if you have other applications or documents open, it’s not that easy.
When an application refuses to close in Windows, the first place we need to go is the Task Manager. There you will see the open applications. Applications, processes and services in general. To open Task Manager, just press the keys Control + Tab + Esc.
You can also search for it in the Windows search engine or in the Start menu. Also, if you right-click on the Windows 11 Start Menu, a list of tools will open, including the Windows 11 Start Menu. Task Manager.
If open apps are not showing in the main Task Manager tab, tap More details to view open processes. There you will find the application that refuses to close it. Click on it, then right-click and select the option Complete homework.
Another way to close applications in Windows is to use terminal commands. But instead of opening the command line, we will use the application Execute. pressing the keys Windows+R the Run menu opens. Here you can launch commands or open applications.
To close the applications we must indicate the command taskkill /im program.exe /t and change “program.exe” to the name of the application we want to close. The downside is that to know this name, you may have to look it up in the Task Manager.
Since Command Prompt you can also close obtuse apps. We first look for it in the start menu and right-click to open this application as Administrator. Once the console is open, we enter the command to-do list to view open processes.
When you find the one you want to close, keep its PID. So to close this application we will use the command kill task /PID 1234 /F where 1234 is the application PID. You can enter two or more PID codes to close two or more applications unexpectedly.
Force close apps on macOS
As I said in the previous section, if you got here it’s because a macOS app refuses to close it permanently. So let’s force close. In this sense, your Mac puts it on a tray, since it has a menu that shows you the open applications and allows you to close the one you want by force.
To access this menu, you can go to the Apple menu and select force out. You can also open it with the keys Option + Command + Esc. We select the capricious application, then click on the button force out. This should close the app.
As an alternative, we can go to activity tracker. There you will see the applications, services and processes currently active in macOS. When you find the one you want to close, all you have to do is select it and click the button with an X. It can give you two options to choose from. Close Is Force close. Use the first and, if he doesn’t listen to you, go to the second.
And as a last resort, we can always restart the mac to clean up and close apps, whether they like it or not. This method is the most drastic but it serves as a last resort if the previous ones are not enough for you.
