Everything is going well until something goes wrong. You click several times on the same button but the application does not respond. Sometimes the cursor changes shape and gives you to understand that that application has passed to a better life. But there it goes. It doesn’t work but it doesn’t go away either. you try close the app but he ignores you. And it is that sometimes closing hung applications is not easy. And that’s when it’s time force close and close those apps by force.
Sometimes it is enough to press the usual keys or click on the usual buttons or menus. But it’s not always like this. For various reasons, ending applications that do not respond becomes an odyssey. The ultimate solution is restart your computer. A reboot fixes everything or almost everything. But there are other less drastic solutions.
We go over all the possible and recommended ways to close apps on Windows and macOS. we will also see how to force close those apps that refuse to disappear. Sooner or later you will achieve your goal without having to restart your PC or Mac. Something problematic if you have documents or other applications open.
Close apps in Windows
Let’s start with the easy. To close applications in Windows, we normally have two ways to do it. The first, by clicking on the close icon, which is usually an X. This icon is usually in the application window, in the upper right corner. If you are more of using the keyboard, you can speed up the 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 app’s icon on the taskbar. A context menu will open displaying various options. Among them, the option Close the window. You can also right click on the title bar of the window and you will see the option Close. And if you hover over an app icon on the taskbar, you’ll see the window thumbnails open to close them separately.
If you are on Windows in tablet mode, you can try closing the app by dragging it down the screen. Click on a blank space at the top of the window and drag. This will close the application. Following with the tablet modeif you press the keys Windows + Tabyou will see the thumbnails of the open windows with their corresponding X-shaped close buttons.
Close apps on macOS
If you use Mac, closing applications 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. It’s in the upper-left corner of open windows. It is used to close, but only that open window, not the entire application.
You can also close apps in macOS by right-clicking their Dock icon and then tapping Go out.
Force close apps in Windows
If you have come this far, it is because you have come across an application that ignores you when you try to close it. It’s not often, but when it does happen, 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 simple.
When an app refuses to close in Windows, the first place we should go is the Task Manager. There you will see the open applications. Applications, processes and services in general. To open the Task Manager, just press the keys Control + Tab + Escape. You can also search for it in the Windows search engine or in the Start menu. What’s more, 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 don’t appear on the main Task Manager tab, tap More details to view open processes. There you will find the app that refuses to close it. Click on it, then right click and select the option Finish homework.
Another way to close applications in Windows is to use Terminal commands. But instead of opening the command line, we will use the app Execute. pressing the keys Windows + R the Run menu opens. In it you can launch commands or open applications. To close applications we must indicate the command taskkill /im program.exe /t changing “program.exe” to the name of the application we want to close. The drawback is that to know that name you may have to look it up in the Task Manager.
From Command Prompt you can also close obtuse apps. First we look for it in the Start menu and right click to open this app as Administrator. Once the console is open, we enter the command task list to view open processes. When you find the one you want to close, keep its PID. So, to close that application, we will use the command taskkill /PID 1234 /F where 1234 is the PID of the app. You can enter two or more PID codes to close two or more apps out of the blue.
Force close apps on macOS
As I said in the previous section, if you got here it is because a macOS application refuses to close it for good. 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 that menu, you can go to the Apple menu and select force exit. You can also open it with the keys Option + Command + Escape. We select the wayward application and then click on the button force exit. This should close the app.
What alternativewe can go to activity tracker. There you will see the applications, services and processes that are currently active in macOS. When you find the one you want to close, you just have to select it and click on the button with an X. It may give you two options to choose from. Close either Force closing. Use the first and, if he doesn’t listen to you, go to the second.
And as a last exit, we can always restart the mac to clean up and close applications, whether they want to or not. This method is the most drastic but it serves as a last resort if the previous ones are not enough for you.