Kill application

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Revision as of 13:27, 24 March 2007 by Alice Wyman (talk | contribs) (noted that Quick Launch applies to Mozilla Suite and SeaMonkey)
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To completely exit (quit) a Mozilla application (Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite, etc) you should do the following.

  1. Close all application windows by going to the menu and clicking "File -> Exit".
  2. Close any remaining dialog boxes or secondary windows such as the Downloads window or the Extensions window.
  3. Mozilla Suite and SeaMonkey - Windows only: When the Quick Launch feature is enabled, your Mozilla application's icons will appear in the Windows "System Tray" (the area next to the clock). If present, right-click on the icons and choose "Exit".

Sometimes, even after following the steps above, the application may still be running ‘in the background’. This can cause problems such as a “profile in use” error. In such cases you should terminate the application's running processes in another way, depending on your operating system.

Windows

Use the Task Manager:

  • Windows Vista: "Ctrl+Shift+Esc" -> "Processes" (or right-click the Taskbar and select "Task Manager -> Processes")
  • Windows XP: "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" -> "Processes" (or right-click the Taskbar and select "Task Manager -> Processes")
  • Windows NT/2000: "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" -> "Task Manager -> Processes".
  • Windows 95/98/ME: "Ctrl+Alt+Delete".

In the list of running processes, look for "firefox.exe", "thunderbird.exe", "mozilla.exe" or "seamonkey.exe" (whichever applies) and terminate, if found. Note that multiple instances may exist so you should carefully check through the processes list and end each one.

Linux

Use the "ps" and "kill" commands. (See their respective manual pages with "man ps" and "man kill" and various other documentation online.)

Mac OS X

Go to your Apple Menu and select "Force Quit". For Mac OS X 10.3 and later, you can also use the Activity Monitor found in your "Utilities" folder ("Applications -> Utilities -> Activity Monitor").