Emergency commands

Sometimes your computer freezes. Your mouse pointer may refuse to move or the program you're using may stop in the middle of saving a document or performing some other task. When this happens, you cannot close your current file, open another file, or do anything else on your computer.

At such times, the best remedy is to "force quit" the program and open the file again. If you have not saved recently, you will lose all the unsaved material, but there is really nothing else you can do.

How to force quit on your Windows PC:

Simultaneously hold down the Control, Alt and Delete keys (Ctrl+Alt+ Del).

Double click on Task Manager button.The Windows Task Manager dialog box opens. The Applications tab is selected and the Task pane shows a list of all the programs that you have open and whether they are running or not responding.

Click to select the program that is not responding and click the End Task button on the bottom of the dialog box. Sometimes this must be done more than once.

Eventually, however, the program in question will close. If you are using Windows XP, a message box will appear asking if you wish to send an Error Report of the problem to Microsoft. You may click Yes or No.

How to force quit on your Macintosh

Simultaneously hold down the Option, Command (Apple) and Escape keys. A message box will appear asking, "Force [application name] to quit? Unsaved changes will be lost." Select "Force Quit" to quit the application.

If your operating system freezes and makes even "Force Quit" impossible, you can perform similar steps to reboot or shut down and restart your computer.

Restart a Windows PC by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del twice.

Force Macintosh to restart by holding down the Control and Command (Apple) keys and pressing Eject (the button with a triangle on it, usually found in the upper-right corner of the Macintosh keyboard).