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Sometimes our computers don't work in exactly the way we want them to, and running a program or surfing the web causes them to freeze up. If your computer seems to have gotten stuck while performing a task, you can easily stop that program from running or reboot your machine altogether to fix the issue and get back to computing.

Knowing when you're in trouble
When your computer is thinking about performing a task, it will typically show an hourglass or a spinning color wheel icon for a few seconds while it gets that thinking done. While a little bit of processing time is normal, minutes or more is not and probably means you need to close the program and try again. Likewise, if you're web surfing or using a program and are unable to use your cursor for minutes (not seconds), chances are you're going to need to force the program to quit.

The process for forcing a program to close differs based on operating system.

On a Windows machine:

• Simultaneously press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete buttons on your computer's keyboard to bring up the Windows Task Manager. (In Windows 7, you must click Start Task Manager after hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del.)
• Select the program you're having trouble with from the list of options that appear, and then click the End Task button in order to force that particular program to shut down.

On a Mac:

• Simultaneously press the Command, Option, and Esc buttons on your computer's keyboard to bring up the Force Quit menu on your Mac.
• Select the program you want to shut down from the list of options that appears, and then click Force Quit to have that program close.

Starting from scratch
Sometimes, shutting down one specific program won't be enough. In these cases, you'll need to power down your entire computer and start over to get everything working appropriately again. Restarting your computer is easy to do, even if you've lost control over your computer's mouse.

Windows Press the Start button on the bottom left side of your screen, then click the arrow next to "Shut down" and select Restart from the available options.

Mac Click on the Apple logo and select Restart from the available options.

If you are unable to move your cursor, press and hold down the power button on your computer for 5 seconds in order to force it to shut down, then press the power button again to turn it back on.

The aftermath
Forcing an application to quit often means you'll lose what you were working on. For instance, if you force quit Microsoft Word, then you will lose everything you've written in your document since your last save. Forcing a web browser to close often means you'll lose the tabs you had open or any web forms you were trying to fill out. Before force quitting, pay attention to what you're exiting from, so you can get back to it when you relaunch the program.

Having to close programs or restart your computer on occasion is a normal part of computing. If you have to force quit programs often or find your computer freezes up every time you use it, then your computer may have an issue that needs to be addressed by a technician. In that case, contact the support provider for your computer (if you have one), or take your computer to a service provider such as Best Buy's Geek Squad or Apple's Genius Bar (for Mac computers).