How to Force-Quit Applications on Android, Windows PC and iOS

Sometimes an app or program starts misbehaving or stops responding suddenly. You receive a warning message on the screen announcing the app or program has stopped working. To make it work you need to Force Close it.

This happens at one point or another with everyone. But how to force stop such apps when this occurs?  In Pc’s we have always used Ctrl+Alt+Delete but can it work for other devices too? As applications can freeze or get stuck in bad states on modern iPhones, iPads, and Android devices too.

Good news is that not only Windows but every operating system has a way to forcibly end bad applications. After you do so, you can relaunch them and they should hopefully work properly.

Here are certain steps you can follow to overcome such situation:

iPhone and iPad

To force-quit a running app on an iPhone or iPad, simply double-press the Home button. This will open the list of recently opened applications. Scroll to the left and right to find the app you want to close.

Now, touch the app’s thumbnail and slide it upward and off the screen to Force Quit. Now, the next time you open the app, it will restart from scratch. This won’t help you save system resources, but it can help to fix a frozen app.

This is a way to force-close an app and force it to restart from a clean state.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X has its own shortcut for accessing the force quit screen. To bring it up press Command + Option + Esc. You can also open it by clicking the Apple menu on your menu bar and select Force Quit.

This tool will help you quit stuck apps.

Alternatively, you can also hold the Option key and right-click an app’s icon on the dock and then click the Force Quit option.

Android

There are two ways you can go do this, the first and easiest way is to hit the multitasking button (the third button beside home and back) and swipe to get rid of apps. The app will be closed and will open from a clean state the next time you access it.

On some devices, you may need to long-press the Home button or perform a different action if there’s no recent apps button.

The other method is to go into settings, here scroll down to apps and tap on the upsetting app.

From here you can force stop an app or manage notifications and internal storage.

Windows

Usually, users follow the sure-fire method of Ctrl + Alt + Delete, but there is a faster way.

Instead, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to bring up Windows Task Manager and click on Applications/Processes.

Alternatively, you could just right-click on the taskbar and select Task Manager from the list.

You can force-quit “Store apps” from the Task Manager on Windows 8.

Chrome OS (and Chrome)

Chrome OS uses Chrome’s task manager. To open it, click the menu button, point to more tools, and select Task Manager

Alternatively just press Shift+Esc on a Chromebook.

You can also manage different processes, Chrome uses for web pages, apps, and extensions when you run Chrome on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

If a web page or app is frozen, use Chrome’s own Task Manager to identify the misbehaving process and kill it.

Linux

Linux has its own set of utilities for force-closing desktop applications and killing processes.

You can use the xkill command, to immediately close a fixed app.

Wrap Up

Regardless of having latest updates for your Windows, iOS and Android devices, applications can freeze and you need to force quit these applications to get them working again.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete is not only the option to force quitting applications, there are other options depending upon your operating system. You can use the above given options to force your applications to quit.

After stopping the app, try opening it again to see whether it works.