OS X: Quit a Frozen Program

A new apple user will eventually find a program that stops responding or hangs. Does OS X have a task manager? Here is how to kill a frozen program.

As an XP user, I was looking for ctrl-alt-del to do something. There are two easy ways to do this.

1. To kill a frozen program in OS X, use the following shortcut:

CMD+option+esc

2. Alternatively, you can hold the option key and click the frozen application in the dock. As long as option is held down, Force Quit will be in the menu that appears.

Editor’s Addendum:
Another easy way to do this is to click and hold on the appie’s icon in the dock. After a second or so there will be a little popup menu (which is useful for other things, too). If the app is responding normally, there will be a “Quit” but if it’s frozen, it will say “Force Quit” instead. I’ll never remember cmd-opt-esc..

oh, definitely worth mentioning.. Apple Menu -> Force Quit.. takes you to the same window you opened. Easier to remember, too.

MightyQ