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How do you break free of a fullscreen app on MacOS X?
There are some, mostly games, that when they become unresponsive won't allow you to switch to another app with Command-Tab, and I know no other way to close that app or get away from it. Command-W or Command-Q won't work either.
Is there a shortcut to launch Activity Monitor, or Terminal, to kill the application?

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4 Answers

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  1. First, try hitting esc. That'll make well behaved programs such as DVD Player or VLC exit Full Screen Mode.

  2. No luck there, try command+tab and see if you can cycle to another open program or the Finder. ( OP tried this, but just adding for completion's sake )

  3. Then try option+command+esc next, to try and Force Quit the application.

  4. If none of that works...you could try to ssh into the machine and kill the offending process via Terminal..

  5. That's be all I try before rebooting the Mac...

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Thanks! how do you put those key-like borders? – Petruza Jun 14 '10 at 20:04
<kbd> and </kbd> – Darth Android Jun 14 '10 at 22:45
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up vote 1 down vote

cmd+alt+esc then Force Quit the offending application.

Sometimes cmd+enter will put it in “window mode”.

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up vote 1 down vote

Shift+Option+Command+Escape should force-kill the active application in Mac OS X, similar to ending an unresponsive task in windows.

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I can't reproduce this behavior. – Josh K Jun 14 '10 at 18:10
Works - it needs to be held for 3 seconds. – JRobert Jun 14 '10 at 20:03
Yeah, works, thanks! – Petruza Jun 14 '10 at 20:09
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up vote 0 down vote

in many cases, cmd-m is often the key sequence to toggle full screen mode...

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