Mac OS X Unleashed

By John Ray and William C. Ray

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Introduction to Mac OS X
  • Chapter 1. Mac OS X Component Architecture
  • Chapter 2. Installing Mac OS X
  • Chapter 3. Mac OS X Basics
  • Chapter 4. The Finder: Working with Files and Applications
    • Using the Finder
    • Finder Status Bar
    • Finder Toolbar
    • Finder File Operations
    • Getting File Information
    • The Desktop and Finder Preferences
    • Burning CDs
    • Using the Dock
    • Customizing the Dock
    • Process Manager: Force Quitting Applications
    • Summary
  • Chapter 5. Running Classic Mac OS Applications
  • Part II: Inside Mac OS X
  • Chapter 6. Native Utilities and Applications
  • Chapter 7. Internet Communications
  • Chapter 8. Installing Third-Party Applications
  • Part III: User-Level OS X Configuration
  • Chapter 9. Network Setup
  • Chapter 10. Printer and Font Management
  • Chapter 11. Additional System Components
  • Part IV: Introduction to BSD Applications
  • Chapter 12. Introducing the BSD Subsystem
  • Chapter 13. Common Unix Shell Commands: File Operations
  • Part V: Advanced Command-Line Concepts
  • Chapter 14. Advanced Shell Concepts and Commands
  • Chapter 15. Command-Line Applications and Application Suites
  • Chapter 16. Command-Line Software Installation
  • Chapter 17. Troubleshooting Software Installs, and Compiling and Debugging Manually
  • Chapter 18. Advanced Unix Shell Use: Configuration and Programming (Shell Scripting)
  • Part VI: Server/Network Administration
  • Chapter 19. X Window System Applications
  • Chapter 20. Command-Line Configuration and Administration
  • Chapter 21. AppleScript
  • Chapter 22. Perl Scripting and SQL Connectivity
  • Chapter 23. File and Resource Sharing with NetInfo
  • Chapter 24. User Management and Machine Clustering
  • Chapter 25. FTP Serving
  • Chapter 26. Remote Access and Administration
  • Chapter 27. Web Serving
  • Part VII: Server Health
  • Chapter 28. Web Programming
  • Chapter 29. Creating a Mail Server
  • Chapter 30. Accessing and Serving a Windows Network
  • Chapter 31. Server Security and Advanced Network Configuration
  • Chapter 32. System Maintenance
  • Appendix A. Command-Line Reference
  • Appendix B. Administration Reference

Process Manager: Force Quitting Applications

The final topic in this chapter is the force quit feature. The Macintosh has never had an effective and reliable method of quitting a "hung" application before the release of Mac OS X. Windows users are accustomed to pressing Control+Alt+Del to force an application to exit, but Mac users were stuck pressing Option+Command+Escape and hoping for the best. If a force quit worked without completely crashing Mac OS, it usually made the system unstable and forced a reboot within minutes.

With Mac OS X, the Option+Command+Escape keystroke still works, but now it brings up a process manager with a list of running applications, as shown in Figure 4.32.

Figure 4.32 Choose an application to kill, and then click Force Quit.

To force an application to exit, just choose it from the list and click Force Quit. This will terminate the application without reducing your system stability. If the Finder seems to be misbehaving, you can choose it from the application list and the Force Quit button will become Relaunch, allowing you to quit and restart the Finder without logging out.

You can also access the Force Quit feature from the Apple menu, or by opening the pop-up Dock menu for a running application and pressing the Option key to toggle the standard Quit selection to Force Quit.

Mac OS X offers another utility that can also force applications, including system processes, to quit. This program, ProcessViewer, will be discussed in Chapter 6, "Native Utilities and Applications."

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