exe file running on a Mac

C

chapytoutou

Guest
I am a newcomer on this forum so I would like to salute everyone.
I havebeen using a Mac for a couple of years now so I can say that i came around a couple of situation with it. I am still a great fan of Mac and I am now running Panther on my Mac.

My brother in law just got a iMac last month and tryed to download file from the net. He dowloaded a file and tryed to run it on his pute. He did not know that he needed to check those file before trying to run them on his machine and did not know about extention, it happen that the file his a .exe file (window) so its still trying to run since then.

I tryed to trash it but its given me the message thatit can not be deleted because its in use I then restart his machine hoping that it will stop trying to run it with no luck. I know that I could be abble to go into the terminal and type a command in there that will stop this think spinning for eternity, but I dont remember witch command to type in there. Anyone in here knows Unix command to type at the prompt so it will stop the exe file trying to execute and delete it from his machine.
Andé Chapdelaine
 

rman


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
12,637
Reaction score
168
Points
63
Location
Los Angeles, California
Your Mac's Specs
14in MacBook Pro M1 Max 32GB 2TB
Have you tried the command-option-esc key sequence. A window should pop up with a list of applications that are running. All you need to is select the application and then press the force quit button.
 
OP
C

chapytoutou

Guest
Thanks for answering so fast. Its great!.
I did but forgot to mantion it on my message. I did used that optoin but the file his not showing on that window. So I can not force quit it. It happen before on my machine I had a game file that I dowlooaded from the net and I was able tp getrid of it by typing a Unix command in the terminal but I dont remember the command.
André
 

rman


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
12,637
Reaction score
168
Points
63
Location
Los Angeles, California
Your Mac's Specs
14in MacBook Pro M1 Max 32GB 2TB
Okay, the first thing we need to is get the PID (process ID). By issuing the following command: ps -ax | grep -i filename. Where filename is the name of the application you want to terminate.

Once you have done that you should have the PID. The PID should be the number in the first column. Next you would issue the command: kill -9 PID. That should terminate the process. Your only problem is that it restart on boot up. After you terminate the process, you need to delete the application. Also you may need to check the following directory/folder OS X -> System _> Library -> AtartupItems. There maybe something in there that start the application on boot up.
 
OP
C

chapytoutou

Guest
Just great I will try that and I am shure it will work just good.
Thanks again and I will check this forum and will try to help other guys with the problem that they enconter.
Thanks again you guys are great.
Bt from Montéal Québec.
 
Joined
Mar 9, 2004
Messages
2,860
Reaction score
21
Points
38
Location
Miami FL
Your Mac's Specs
G4 1Ghz OS X 10.4.7
rman's reply should work. I had a similar issue and I handled it like this: open terminal, type top (lists all running process) check the list for the app you want terminated, then as rman said type kill (PID) or kill -9 (PID) in case the first doesn't work
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top