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Operating systems like Windows 11 offer a set of easy ways to quit programs in an instant. These methods also work on past iterations of this OS — including the widely used Windows 10 and 7 — when it comes to force-quitting an unwanted program. While this could be detrimental to an application's health, it can save users time. However, one must know that force-quitting certain programs, like video games, can result in corrupted data and save files.
This article will provide a couple of quick and efficient ways to close apps in an instant. One will involve using a Microsoft Windows 11 shortcut, while the other will see this operating system's Task Manager come into play. Users can employ either method according to their given scenario when using applications.
Using a popular keyboard shortcut to shut down an application in Windows 11
Some of the most popular Windows shortcut keys work with the latest iteration of Microsoft's Operating system. This includes the Alt+F4 one.
When you are in an application or video game that you intend to get out of quickly, press the Alt and F4 keys on your keyboard at the same time. This will close the program immediately, and you will not have to use your mouse to close a window manually.
While this is by far the simplest method of force-quitting an application, it comes with a high chance of corrupting data. As most applications have to go through a process of saving some sort of progress before they close, especially video games, using Alt+F4 may be detrimental to save or system configuration files of these programs.
It is always recommended to use this shortcut after you have confirmed that the program you intend to quit is not in the process of saving data.
Using Windows 11 Task Manager to force quit a program
One useful tool that Microsoft provides is the Task Manager in Windows 11. While every single Windows operating system since Windows NT has offered this feature, the newer iterations of this manager are much more advanced and useful.
Here's how one can close programs forcefully in Windows 11 with the help of Task Manager:
- To open Task Manager, left-click on the taskbar at the bottom of your desktop and click on Task Manager.
- Alternatively, you can press CTRL+ALT+DEL on your keyboard to access more options and open the manager from there.
- Once it is open, look for the program that you want to close.
- Click on it and drag the cursor to the bottom right of the Task Manager window.
- Click on the End Task option.
The running application will close almost immediately, though this will depend on its priority with regard to the CPU.
After right-clicking on the application you want to close inside the Task Manager, you can also select the Go to Details option to take a look at the running instances of that program. Then, you can use the End Task option to close them all.
The Task Manager method is particularly great for applications that stop responding. However, as mentioned earlier, force-quitting programs can negatively affect many things associated with them.
