TNT: DYN-O-MITE TIPS AND TRICKS by Paul Sahner

August 23, 2002

Quick Quit

Do you have an app in OS X that could really use a good Force Quit? In OS 9, you had one option, and that was the 3-finger salute known as "command-option-esc" or, "Force Quit." For those of you who don't know, force quit is the end all way to get an application to just go away. But be warned, any documents you have open in that program will NOT be saved.

Now, unlike OS 9, OS X has several ways to Force Quit an application. Of course you have the original "command-option-esc". But you also have several other options.

If you look under your Apple Menu, there is an item that says "Force Quit." This will bring up a window listing all the apps you can kill.

Also, if you don't have time for a window to come up with options and dialog boxes, you can hold down "Control" and "Option" keys and click on the apps icon in the dock. A small menu will pop up giving you - yup, you guessed it - a "Force Quit" option. (Note: If you do not hold down the "Option" key, it will only give you a regular Quit option).

So let's say you've tried EVERYTHING and your little annoying app just won't quit. You have two more (extreme) options.

One is with the Terminal app and the other is with the Process Viewer app (both in the OS X utilities folder).

For the Terminal we do this: Open the terminal and after it's launched, type in top. This will list all of the processes currently running. Next to each process is a "PID." This is the number the system assigns to each process and it's what you'll need.

Once you've determined the PID of the app you want to kill, open a new terminal window and type kill 27100. Of course you need to replace the number in mine with the number of your app. This will promptly force quit the app.

 Your other option of course is the Process Viewer app, which is just a GUI front end for the kill command outlined in the previous paragraph. And to be honest, this way is MUCH easier. Once you have opened the Process Viewer, find the application you want to quit from the list, then double click on it. This will present you with a dialog box, click "Force Quit" and you're done.

Memory Bubbles

Here's a good rule to live by in OS 9. Always quit applications in the reverse order that you launched them. For example, if you opened Internet Explorer, Word and then Photoshop, the best way to quit them is Photoshop, Word then Internet Explorer. It will help stop memory bubbles from being cut off, and thus keeping your computer useful for a much longer time without restarting. The reason you don't need to do this in X is because of it's advanced memory management system.

Build Numbers and Such

Okay, so maybe you're not a niner. You want "X-rated" stuff, right? Here is something for you to chew on: Remember in the early days of OS X (think public beta) the "About this Mac" used to display the build number? Miss it? Mmm, maybe not. But if you want it back, just click on the version number (Ex.: 10.1.5). That'll cycle through three pieces of information, the version number, the build number and the serial number. Why is there a serial number you ask? It is that of the machine...so when tech support asks you for the number, you dont have to hurt yourself while pulling out the computer and cranking your neck like a goofy old Monkie. =)

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