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How many times has this happened to you?... You're surfing the web, and you click a link. You wait a few minutes, and the web page won't come up. So you click... and click... and click again. You couldn't be any more frustrated, could you? Then, the spinning disk of color pops up in place of your cursor, and doesn't go away. Oh great... your computer's frozen! And it won't un-freeze! Here is how you can escape this problem by force quitting the program that has crashed.

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[edit] Steps

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Command - Option - Escape simultaneously. If you need more explanation on how to find these keys read on:
- Command is the button with the curly clover pattern on it. In pre 2008 apple keyboards it also had an apple icon on it. It is in the bottom left of your keyboard.
- Alt/Option key is located at the bottom left of your keyboard.
- Escape (Esc) is located at the top left hand corner of your keyboard.
Select the application you want to force quit from the "Force Quit Applications" window that pops up. If the program has crashed, it will typically say "not responding" next to it in this menu.
Click the button that says "Force Quit".

Mouse Method

Direct your mouse to the apple icon in the top left of your screen.
Scroll down to "Force Quit" and close the application which is not responding.

Dock Method

Use a two button mouse such as the Mighty Mouse or a third-party two button mouse.
Right click on the application's icon in the Dock and hold Option. This will display a Force Quit option.
- If you don't have a two button mouse, instead of right clicking, clicking and holding works too.

[edit] Tips

Before you click "Force Quit", double check that the application is still frozen. Sometimes the application un-freezes while you bring up the "Force Quit" window.
It is not possible to force quit Finder. If you select Finder, the "Force Quit" button will say "Relaunch".
To force quit the application without opening the force quit window, just press Shift with the other buttons (Command+Option+Shift+Esc) and hold for about 5 seconds. This will close the currently active application.