In any incomprehensible situation, press Ctrl + Alt + Del – users of the Windows operating system have been guided by this postulate for decades. However, with the transition to macOS, this principle loses its relevance, what to do in case of “freezing” programs and other troubles?
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If you’ve recently switched from Windows to Mac and your program is stuck, your first reaction is to press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Delete… But on Mac, this shortcut does not work – although macOS, of course, has similar functionality. So what should you press?
Start with the fact that Ctrl + Alt + Delete not the best shortcut in Windows 10. Why? The fact is that it does not lead you directly to the Task Manager, where you can try to close the non-working program. Instead, you will see a menu with a variety of options – exit to the lock screen, change user, log out of account, change password …
And only at the very bottom there will be a link to the Task Manager. If you still use Windows and need the Manager from time to time, it makes sense to learn a special shortcut to launch it – Ctrl + Shift + Esc…
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Program stuck, how to close on Mac (Force Quit)
You can use the keyboard shortcut to close any program on macOS ⌘Cmd + Q… Another thing is that this command will not have any impact on a non-working application.
macOS differs from the Microsoft platform in terms of stability, but the developers from Cupertino, of course, cannot ensure absolute system continuity. When using the correct operating software, abnormal situations do not happen often, but you should not unplug your computer every time an application stops responding.
Apple has developed a special utility for such cases called Force Quitting Programs… You can go to it using the shortcut ⌘Cmd + ⌥Option (Alt) + Esc… It is very simple to work with it – just click on the name of the “frozen” program (most likely, it will say “not responding” next to it) and press the button Complete in the lower right corner.
This is the easiest way to deal with frozen programs, so we strongly recommend that you remember the appropriate shortcut.
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If you cannot close the program in this way, you can use the operating system control menu, which is invoked by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Eject… There are options for shutting down the computer, restarting it, and entering sleep mode.
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How to open Task Manager on Mac
macOS-analogue of the Dispatcher is called Activity monitoring (in detail). It collects information about the operation of the central processor, RAM, network, disk and energy consumption of individual applications.
The easiest way to run Activity monitoring – find it through Spotlight search. To do this, click on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the screen or use the keyboard shortcut ⌘Cmd + Space (sometimes CTRL + Space). It is not necessary to type the entire name, Spotlight will understand what you mean after pressing the letter “M”.
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