Close All Programs?

Ninjab3ar · May 5, 2007

Is there an app that can close all of my open programs at once (kind of like if i was shutting down my computer, minus the shutting down)?

I would greatly appreciate it if you guys at MF can help me!

walkerj · May 5, 2007

Yeah, it's me again. Your best bet would probably be the Terminal.app command line killall. You can specify by name what apps you know are running, and give their names as arguments to the killall command. So for example if I have iChat, iTunes, Mail, Preview, Safari, Azureus (Force quit shows that as SWT for some reason), Terminal, TextEdit, and Finder (which of course you can't quit) I could issue:

$ killall iChat iTunes Mail Preview Safari SWT Terminal Textedit

Of course you might need to add the .app to each of those process names since that would be what Mac OS X knows them as.

Ninjab3ar · May 5, 2007

walkerj said:
Yeah, it's me again. Your best bet would probably be the Terminal.app command line killall. You can specify by name what apps you know are running, and give their names as arguments to the killall command. So for example if I have iChat, iTunes, Mail, Preview, Safari, Azureus (Force quit shows that as SWT for some reason), Terminal, TextEdit, and Finder (which of course you can't quit) I could issue:

$ killall iChat iTunes Mail Preview Safari SWT Terminal Textedit

Of course you might need to add the .app to each of those process names since that would be what Mac OS X knows them as.

Thanks for the advice, but eh... it sounds like a lot of work, lol (and doesnt killall force quit it?). I just wanted to know if there was a program that the exact thing that OS X did when it shut down, minus closing finder, or turning off the computer. I tend to be the type that likes running many programs at once, and sometimes i need to close them all to run a RAM intensive program. Do you think OS X has a feature that does it?

giulio · May 5, 2007

You can log out and back in. That's not a shut down.

Otherwise...
Command+Tab, keep command held down and keep hitting Q. They'll pop off the bezel as they quit.

Ninjab3ar · May 5, 2007

giulio said:
Otherwise...
Command+Tab, keep command held down and keep hitting Q. They'll pop off the bezel as they quit.

Wow, great tip! That works!

giulio · May 6, 2007

And if you don't feel like waiting for them to quit (big apps)...

Command+Tab, keep command held down while : Q-tab-Q-tab-Q-tab (quickly).

Brown Study · May 6, 2007

You could also use an AppleScript to quit everything at once. One is described here, but read the whole thing. I haven't tried it.

If you decide to look for other AppleScripts (to do that or anything else), make sure they aren't for OS 9 or older. If there is no such information, check the dates on the stories or posts. It could save a ton of frustration.

Ninjab3ar · May 6, 2007

Brown Study said:
You could also use an AppleScript to quit everything at once. One is described here, but read the whole thing. I haven't tried it.

If you decide to look for other AppleScripts (to do that or anything else), make sure they aren't for OS 9 or older. If there is no such information, check the dates on the stories or posts. It could save a ton of frustration.

Cool, do you know of any places i can go to learn applescript? I want to be able to make niftly little commands like that

Brown Study · May 6, 2007

MacScripter is a good one. There's no on-site search function unless you sign up, I believe.

Ryan13 · May 6, 2007

You could go to your local Apple store, maybe?

Ninjab3ar · May 6, 2007

Brown Study said:
MacScripter is a good one. There's no on-site search function unless you sign up, I believe.

Cool, thanks!

opus_az · May 6, 2007

Himmelbar http://softbend.free.fr/himmelbar/ can do that and much MUCH more. It's a program launcher that can also quit all programs (or quit all programs that aren't in your exception list). Terrific utility that sits in your menu bar.

qwinkan · May 6, 2007

stupid question here from a noob...

what happens if you shut down with applications still running?

I read a tip saying to make sure to close apps and not just minimize them.

I'm about to be a switcher in two weeks =P

Mattlike · May 6, 2007

qwinkan said:
stupid question here from a noob...

what happens if you shut down with applications still running?

I read a tip saying to make sure to close apps and not just minimize them.

I'm about to be a switcher in two weeks =P

I have shut down with things like iTunes/Mail/Firefox running and I have had no problems.

MacHeadCase · May 6, 2007

If the apps don't have any unsaved documents or work, the system will shut/quit them for you.

If some apps have some unsaved work, the shut down is postponed till you save your work or completely stopped if you do not respond to the prompt to save your work.

andrebnu · May 6, 2007

giulio said:
You can log out and back in. That's not a shut down.

Otherwise...
Command+Tab, keep command held down and keep hitting Q. They'll pop off the bezel as they quit.

wow...I liked that VERY much!! Tks!!

Ninjab3ar · May 6, 2007

opus_az said:
Himmelbar http://softbend.free.fr/himmelbar/ can do that and much MUCH more. It's a program launcher that can also quit all programs (or quit all programs that aren't in your exception list). Terrific utility that sits in your menu bar.

THANK YOU! You are my savior!

giulio · May 6, 2007

Ninjab3ar,

Closing programs might not necessarily free up all the ram they were using. Usually the ram stays "Inactive" which is different than "free". I'm not too sure what the destinction is in performance.
The only way (that I know of) to REALLY free up the ram is to reboot. So depending on what you need to quit all apps for, a reboot might be the best bet.

Ninjab3ar · May 6, 2007

giulio said:
Ninjab3ar,

Closing programs might not necessarily free up all the ram they were using. Usually the ram stays "Inactive" which is different than "free". I'm not too sure what the destinction is in performance.
The only way (that I know of) to REALLY free up the ram is to reboot. So depending on what you need to quit all apps for, a reboot might be the best bet.

I know, but it helps. I just needed an app like this to close the 10-15 apps I tend to run at the same time (Yikes!) all at once so that I can run programs like parallels at least when Im running Windows. I've tried Ubuntu on it and its MUCH more RAM efficient.

cad2blender · May 6, 2007

Couldn't you just press Command+Q several times? Is quitting the same as shutting down the apps right?

Close All Programs?

Ninjab3ar

walkerj

Ninjab3ar

giulio

Ninjab3ar

giulio

Brown Study

Ninjab3ar

Brown Study

Ryan13

Ninjab3ar

opus_az

qwinkan

Mattlike

MacHeadCase

Guest

andrebnu

Ninjab3ar

giulio

Ninjab3ar

cad2blender

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