While a computer system offers us a wide array of convenience it is far from being perfect and on occasions it does not always function at its optimum level. You may find that in the middle of completing a task, the computer may experience a bottle neck where one or more applications might hang up or the entire computer system ceases to respond resulting in none of the computers features being functional. This can be caused from a number of reasons; such as low memory, limited hard disk space or just a slow processing speed. These are all factors which can cause the computer to be less than functional at times. Luckily the creators of the Operating Systems have implemented a system for counteracting such instances to close whatever application that may become unresponsive in order to free up a computer system.

Instructions

1. Depending on the type of operating system you are using, force quitting an application may vary. If you happen to be working on a Windows based platform computer, then there are several methods to force quit. You can hold down to the following keys simultaneously on the keyboard, Ctrl, Alt and delete, this will open an application called a Task Manager. An alternative for finding this is to also right click the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and clicking Task Manager but this way of finding the Task Manager can’t always be used if the computer has become too unresponsive.

2. The task manager will show a number of tabs, such as Application and Processes. The Application shows most of the applications which are opened along with its status; i.e. whether it’s Running which means it is operating functionally or Not Responding. The programs detailed Not Responding are the programs which are causing the bottle neck.

3. Now select whichever program is Not Responding and use your mouse or navigate through with your keyboard and click End task at the bottom of the Task Manager and this will close the program. Sometimes this does not work and so your next option is to navigate to the Processes Tab, which shows all the programs running in the background, if you know the name of the program, then you can click End process to close it.

4. If you are working on a MAC OS based computer, bringing up the Force Quit Application is done in a similar fashion but with slightly different keys. You will hold down Command, Alt/Option and Escape keys on the keyboard all at once. This will bring up the Force Quit Applications and then you can select the application you want to force quit.

5. You can also use your mouse to navigate to the top left corner of the screen and scroll down to Force Quit and close the application that is not responding. Or you can simply use the Dock option and select the Force Quit option to close a program.

Tips & Warnings

• In some cases, if there is too much bottle neck taking place on the computer the force quitting applications may not work and you might just have to try to log off the computer or manually restart the computer with the reset button.
• Whenever you are using a computer ensure that you always save your work as you go along because if the computer becomes unresponsive and you have to force quit, you may lose valuable work or files.
• On a Windows 95 or 98 Operating System, holding down to Ctrl, Alt, and then delete twice will restart the computer without you being able to make a final save your work.

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