Close an app with Task Manager

Step by step

1. Click the Start button! Look at the bottom of this practice computer: the dark strip there is its taskbar. In the middle of it, click the Start button (four blue squares). The main menu opens just above it. If you see two taskbars, use the one inside this page.
2. Click "Calculator". In the menu that opened, click the "Calculator" tile (a square with a small picture and its name under it): the app opens in its own window.
3. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar. Task Manager shows what is running. To open it, put the mouse on the taskbar (the dark strip at the bottom) in an empty part with no icon, for example between the middle icons and the clock, and press the RIGHT mouse button: a small menu opens.
4. Click "Task Manager". In the small menu, click "Task Manager" (the first line): the Task Manager window opens.
5. Click "Calculator". In the Task Manager window, look for the "Apps" heading: under it is the list of your open apps. Click the "Calculator" row once to select it (the row gets highlighted).
6. Click "End task". At the top right of the Task Manager window, click the "End task" button (it only works once a row is selected): the Calculator closes immediately, as if it had been forced to quit.
7. Close this window. You are done with this window, so close it: click the ✕ button at the top right corner of the "Task Manager" window (on its title bar, the strip at the top). The window disappears.

These steps are written for SafePC, a pretend Windows-style computer in your web browser. On your own computer, the buttons and menus may look a little different, but the idea is the same.

More lessons in The taskbar

• Pin an app
• Close from the taskbar
• Show the desktop in one click
• Task view