System monitor mac os. How to see running processes in OS X. Using the Terminal to unload processes

On MacOS, you encounter certain inconveniences while using your computer. Which is quite natural, because the differences are quite significant. Familiar menu elements, functions, modes and options - everything is not the same as before. It’s not difficult to figure all this out, it’s just a matter of time. One of the most used and useful Windows utilities is the well-known Task Manager. Of course, the need for such an application often arises among MacOS users. In this article we will figure out how to open the task manager on a Mac, what utility replaces it and how to use it. Let's get started. Go!

For those who switched from Windows to Mac

First of all, it should be noted that Apple developers did not provide a full-fledged analogue of the Task Manager, however, they implemented a somewhat simplified version of this utility, which is called “Force Quit Programs”. Unfortunately, it does not have the range of functions that the application has in Windows, but it does an excellent job of its direct task - forcefully ending programs and processes.

Minimalistic process completion dialog

Getting into the program window is just as easy. To do this, use the key combination command+option(alt)+esc. After this, a utility window will open in front of you, in which you can see a list of running processes. It's very easy to work with. Select the required process and click the “Finish” button.

Keyboard shortcut to launch the utility

If you need to monitor running services and processes, then you will have to use another MacOS application called “System Monitor”. In it you will be able to monitor the main parameters of the system, including:

The OS asks you to confirm the action

To launch the System Monitor utility, you need to go to the search window, which can be called up by pressing the command + spacebar key combination, and then enter the name of the application.

As you can see, despite the fact that Apple computers do not have a full-fledged analogue of the Windows Task Manager, the necessary functions are available in the “System Monitor” and “Force Quit Programs” utilities. The combination of these two applications will give you the same capabilities for monitoring parameters and working with processes. Write in the comments whether this article helped you, and ask any questions you have on the topic.

Today we will show several such methods. Take the time to explore them all, and then you can choose the one that suits you best.

Dock

The easiest way to see what apps are currently running is to look at the Dock. If you see a shining indicator under the application icon, then this application is open and running.

There's nothing wrong with this method, but it's limited because it only shows windowed applications—those that run in the OS X GUI. It also doesn't allow you to do anything directly with the running application.

Finally, the aforementioned glowing indicators are small and can be difficult to see, with some people not seeing them at all. Fortunately, there are more interesting ways to view lists of applications running in OS X.

Use the Command+Option+Escape combination and you will see the Force Quit window, which in OS X can be thought of as a simple task manager.

In this window, you will see an easy-to-read list of all active (running) applications in OS X, which will include all the applications you would see in the Dock.

Despite the window's name, you can use it to view a list of running applications and programs without quitting them.

The obvious advantage of the Command+Option+ESC window is the ability to directly influence the application. In particular, an application can be terminated if it becomes unresponsive. Basically, this window is a simplified version of the “Control+ALT+DELETE” task manager from the Windows world.

The main limitation of the Force Quit window is that it only shows windowed OS X applications, and you can't see various background processes (as is the case with the Dock).

The most powerful utility for managing applications and processes in the OS X GUI is System Monitor. This is a powerful task manager that will show not only all running and active applications, but also all active and inactive processes.

In other words, System Monitor shows almost everything running on a Mac, including the aforementioned windowed applications, background applications, menu bar items, system-level processes, other users' processes, inactive processes, service daemons - or almost anything that is running as a process at any level of OS X.

This utility is located in /Programs/Utilities/, but it can easily be launched through Spotlight or Launchpad.

To simplify the list presented, call up the processes submenu and select what you need, like “All processes”, “My processes”, “System processes”, etc. Don't forget about the search form on the right - it can be very useful when quickly searching for a specific process.

System Monitor offers many tools and options, and is the most advanced way to view advanced information on all active processes without using the command line. This utility allows you to forcefully terminate processes and applications, sort processes by name, by PID, by user, by CPU usage, etc.

Moreover, “System Monitor” will also present you with general statistics on the use of the central processor, memory, disk and network activity, which can be necessary when solving various problems, ranging from identifying the reasons for inadequate use of system memory to understanding the reasons for system slowdowns.

An added bonus is that System Monitor can be kept always on. Plus, you can pin it to the Dock and see CPU, memory, disk, and network activity in real time.

Once you access the Command Prompt, you can use several additional tools to view a list of all the applications running on your Mac. In many ways, these tools can be thought of as command line versions of System Monitor. Today we will look at a couple of such tools: top and ps.

The top command will show you a list of all running processes and various statistics for each process. Typically, sorting by CPU usage or by memory usage is most useful.

You can sort processes by CPU using the command:

Sort by memory usage:

Information from top is updated in real time, but information from ps is not.

By default, the ps command will only show the processes of the current user, so it’s not very convenient to use it just like that. But if you add a flag or two, you can see all the processes. In particular, a good flag combination is aux:

To see the entire output of the command, it is better to expand the Tarminal window. But even in this case, you will be overwhelmed by the number of processes running (a common occurrence). Therefore, it is better to use the above command with the prefix more or less:

This command will allow you to view processes page by page, without scrolling up and down the Terminal window.

To find a specific process (or application), you can use a grep command like:

ps aux|grep Process

You can also search by application name:

ps aux|grep "Application name"

Which of the above methods should you choose? You decide. Some users may use System Monitor or even the Command Prompt, while others may want to use the Force Quit menu. In any case, do not forget to visit the pages of our website, and we will definitely tell you something else interesting about OS X.

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The only thing worse than unexpectedly crashing applications are those that stop responding to external stimuli in the face of a user desperately pressing buttons, but continue to function, consuming resources and filling up the RAM with digital garbage. Luckily for us, there are at least 5 methods to combat this problem.

In contact with

How to close a frozen program on MacOS

Method number 1 - hot buttons

Combination of ⌘Command + ⌥Option (Alt) + Esc opens a window for forcing the termination of running programs. The list presented shows the currently running applications, the space on the right is usually empty. If in any line there is an inscription “not responding”, feel free to click on it, highlighting the frozen program. In difficult cases, there may not be an inscription - you will have to call on intuition and observation to help identify the troublemaker.

The only button on the bottom right leaves no alternatives; all we can do is emergency close the selected application. Let's try. But usually we do it easier, as long as we remain within the window of the frozen program, we use a more complex combination of hot buttons ⌘Command + ⌥Option (Alt) + ⇧Shift+ Esc. Hold them down for three long seconds and OS X will automatically close this window.

Method number 2 - using the Apple menu ()

At the very top of the desktop, in the far left corner, there is a magic icon in the form of the company logo , which opens access to the basic functions of the system - in case of a problem, click on it.

In the drop-down menu, approximately in the middle, there is a line “ Force quit", that's what we need. And then a familiar window opens with a list of currently running applications - you already know what to do, the buggy enemy will be promptly defeated.

Method number 3 - force closing the program from the Dock

Find the shortcut for the frozen program on the bottom panel (in the Dock) and press the button ⌥Option (Alt) and right-click with the mouse - a special service menu will open.

One of the items in the menu that opens is the same forced termination; further steps are obvious.

Method number 4 - use the Terminal

The transition from a window interface to a console interface, a more complex level of interaction with macOS in case the problem turned out to be serious and the previous methods did not bring results. The program is located in the system utilities directory - find it and run it. In the window that opens, type the command “ top” and press the enter key - this is how we instruct the computer to generate and display a short report about its current state. Including reporting on what programs are running and how they behave.

Among the variety of symbols, we are interested in the column entitled “ Command", the names of currently running applications are printed here. You need to manually find the stuck one, and it is worth considering that abbreviations are used for long names - attentiveness will not hurt.

Next to the name of the program you are looking for there is its digital number PID(system identifier) ​​- this is what we need. In the old fashioned way, we copy it into a notepad or, keeping up with the times, take a photo with an iPhone camera.

Press the key " q"- this command closes the list and moves the cursor to an empty line, the system is ready to receive new instructions and deal with the problematic application.

This is done with the loud command “ kill", after which, separated by a space, you should write the PID of the intruder. In this case, these are Viber and 403, so the final version looks like “kill 403”.

Click " Enter" - the job is done, but if the system does not respond, you can tighten the order by typing the following command " sudo kill -9 403", should help.

Method No. 5 – using the System Monitoring utility

In this case, this system tool for advanced users can be perceived simply as an expanded version of the menu with a list of running programs. The utility icon is located in the same place as Terminal– find and launch the program.

The extensive list that opens should not frighten you, look for it in the column “ Process name"our frozen application and select it with a mouse click.

At the top and left there is a button " End the process” - this is exactly what it does, unloading software from memory and freeing up system resources on the Mac.

On MacOS, you encounter certain inconveniences while using your computer. Which is quite natural, because the differences are quite significant. Familiar menu elements, functions, modes and options - everything is not the same as before. It’s not difficult to figure all this out, it’s just a matter of time. One of the most used and useful Windows utilities is the well-known Task Manager. Of course, the need for such an application often arises among MacOS users. In this article we will figure out how to open the task manager on a Mac, what utility replaces it and how to use it. Let's get started. Go!

For those who switched from Windows to Mac

First of all, it should be noted that Apple developers did not provide a full-fledged analogue of the Task Manager, however, they implemented a somewhat simplified version of this utility, which is called “Force Quit Programs”. Unfortunately, it does not have the range of functions that the application has in Windows, but it does an excellent job of its direct task - forcefully ending programs and processes.

Minimalistic process completion dialog

Getting into the program window is just as easy. To do this, use the key combination command+option(alt)+esc. After this, a utility window will open in front of you, in which you can see a list of running processes. It's very easy to work with. Select the required process and click the “Finish” button.

Force Quit Programs window

Using the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + Escape, we make the “Force Quit Application” window appear, after which we select the “End” item to close the program. The operation performed is a more simplified version of the command in System Monitoring, which allows you to free several processes from memory at once.

Force termination of a program from the Dock

You need to perform the following combination: move the cursor over the icon in the Dock and, holding ALT (Option) on the keyboard, click the mouse. As a result, the frozen application will be forcibly closed, without additional confirmation.

Force quitting an app from the Apple menu

Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and click on the Apple logo in the top menu bar. Now select the command “Finish “...” forcibly”. This method is the easiest to remember. However, it happens that the computer does not react in any way to pressing these keys.

Using System Monitoring

To launch the System Monitor system utility, press the Command + Space key combination and enter the name of the program in the Spotlight window. After the dialog box appears, we find the “frozen” application either by name (as a rule, tasks that are immune to the effects are marked in red) or by identification number (ID), and then click “End process”. This method of unloading unnecessary software from memory is very similar to that used in Windows, only instead of System Monitor there is Task Manager.

Using the Terminal to unload processes

If none of the above methods helped you, the most effective method in this situation is to use the command line. Launch Terminal and enter one of the following commands:

Killall [process name]

For example, with the “killall Safari” command you will kill all processes associated with the Internet browser. And if you know the ID of the open application, which can be found using the “ps” or “ps aux” commands, you can unload the “frozen” program in the following way:

Kill -9 , where 9 is the aforementioned ID parameter.

You should be extremely careful when taking actions aimed at forcibly closing programs. Any termination of processes may cause the operating system to crash. And if you also work with the command line, this can lead to the loss of unsaved data and system settings failure.

Sometimes an unpleasant situation occurs when Mac OS X programs stop responding to keystrokes or mouse presses - “freezing”. Fortunately, this happens quite rarely, but if you have ever encountered such a problem (and I’m sure that at least once in your life you have encountered such a problem), then you will probably be interested and useful to learn about several ways how this “frozen” application can be terminated.

1 Force Quit via Apple Menu.
Hold down the Shift key ⇧ click menu Apple () and in the drop-down menu find the command “Force quit [program name]”- this is that treasured menu item that allows you to “kill” an unresponsive program.

2 Force exit via the Dock menu.
While holding down the Alt ⌥ key, right-click on the frozen program icon (which you want to close)- a menu will appear containing the item “ Force quit" Selecting this menu item will forcefully terminate the program.

3 Forced exit via hotkey combination.
The keyboard shortcut Alt ⌥ + Cmd ⌘ + Esc opens the “ Forced termination of programs" The window that appears lists all open programs. Select the frozen program, and then click on the " Complete" An active frozen application can be forcibly terminated using another keyboard shortcut, bypassing the list. To do this, use the keyboard shortcut Alt ⌥ + Shift ⇧ + Cmd ⌘ + Esc.

4 Forced exit through “System Monitoring”.
System utility System monitoring provides information about CPU, memory and network usage. In addition, through it you can also very quickly “kill” any system process, and not only that. This is done like this: select the “hung” process from the list and click on the big red button “ End the process" After this, a dialog box will appear confirming your actions.

5 Force shutdown of an application using the Terminal.
If all the steps described above do not help, then you still have the opportunity to terminate the frozen application through the command line. To do this, run the utility Terminal and run the following command:

Killall [process name]

A live example for forcing a program to terminate " Calculator" will look like this:

Killall Calculator

Please note that the process name or application name is case sensitive, so Calculator And calculator- these are different things. Don't forget that the team killall works at the system level and its thoughtless execution can lead to the loss of unsaved data since automatic saving will not work in this case.

Attention! Use these methods only in emergency situations, when you are sure that the application is really hopelessly frozen. All of the above methods of forcing programs to terminate immediately “kill” the process without the ability to auto-save data. Keep in mind that all information not saved while the program is running will be lost.

Almost all OS X applications work well and do not cause problems. They can be left open for months, and thanks to the UNIX platform inside the OS X operating system itself, they will work stably. However, there are situations when something goes wrong: the application may freeze or simply behave strangely. In such cases, you can quickly terminate it using various methods.

Quickly close an application from the Dock

While holding down the ⌥ key, right-click the application icon in the Dock and select Force Quit.

In a similar way, you can quickly restart the Finder by holding ⌥, right-clicking the Finder icon and selecting Restart.

Force Quitting OS X Applications

If quitting via the Dock is not an option, for example when you are playing a game in full screen mode, then you can press the key combination ⌘ + ⌥ + ESC to display the Force Quit Applications window. In this case, the active (or hung) application will already be selected, so to quickly end it all you have to do is press Enter twice.

Terminate applications or processes through System Monitor

By launching the System Monitor application, you will see all the currently running processes. Select the unwanted application or process and click the red End process button. System Monitoring allows you to use a filter to search for the required process; this is very convenient, since not all running applications can run in the background, without displaying a graphical interface.