Mac OS X - Force Quit & Process Management

Each application on Mac OS X consists of one or more separate "processes" running on the computer's processor. In addition to processes which you may be running, such as Microsoft Word, there are always numerous background processes providing services for your software and operating system. One of the biggest advantages of Mac OS X's UNIX roots is the ability to exercise more control over all of these processes than you could in previous versions of the Mac OS. What does this mean to the average user? It means that the 'force quit' command works really well in Mac OS X.

When to use 'Force Quit'

Force quit is used to quit an unresponsive application and/or process. Due to the way Mac OS X works, even if a single application is unresponsive, other applications should be accessible, though possibly sluggish. When moving the mouse pointer over an area of the screen controlled by an unresponsive application (such as a window for Microsoft Word), the pointer will usually change to a spinning color wheel.

Accessing 'Force Quit'

The 'Force Quit' command is always accessible via the Apple menu. It can also be accessed by pressing the following key combination (which you may be familiar with from previous versions of Mac OS) : command (apple) - option - escape. This will bring up the list of running user applications.

If the operating system has determined that a program is being unresponsive, that program's name may show up in red in the list of applications. To force a program to quit, simply select it from the list and click the 'Force Quit' button. Depending on how badly the program is behaving, it may take a few moments for the program to quit. When done, simply click the close button in the upper left of the 'Force Quit Applications' window.

Process Management

Mac OS X includes an application called 'Process Viewer' (located in the Utilities folder) which provides a view of all processes running on your computer, including those created by the operating system. This tool can be useful for troubleshooting if your computer becomes sluggish (indicating one or more processes are consuming a lot of system resources). An application which is using a large percentage of CPU (computer processor) may be malfunctioning depending on the task it should be performing. In the example below, the 'screencapture' process is saving a screenshot, so is consuming a large percentage of the CPU, though only for a brief time.

An application can be selected from the list and quit using the 'Quit Process' command located under the 'Processes' menu. Be *very* careful when using this application, as quitting the wrong process could cause some functions of your computer and/or software to become unusable until a reboot.

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