Coming from Windows, your fingers look for Alt+F4. The Mac has an equivalent — two, actually — and the difference between them trips up every switcher. Here’s the full map, plus the shortcuts Windows never had.
The direct equivalents
Cmd+Q— quit the app.The closest match to Alt+F4’s spirit: the whole application exits, with save prompts where needed.Cmd+W— close the window. The subtle difference from Windows: closing the last window usually leaves the Mac app running(check the Dock dot). Alt+F4 on a last window kills the program; Cmd-W doesn’t.
That distinction is why a Mac accumulates “invisible” running apps over a workday — you closed their windows, not the apps.
When an app won’t quit
Cmd+Option+Esc— the Force Quit dialog (the Mac’s Ctrl+Alt+Del).- Hold
Optionwhile right-clicking a Dock icon — Quit becomes Force Quit.
Force-quitting skips save prompts and can leave crash-recovery state — a last resort, same as End Task.
What neither OS gives you: quit everything
There’s no Cmd+Q-all. The built-in method is the Cmd-Tab switcher loop (hold Cmd, tap Tab to an app, press Q, repeat) — fine for three apps, tedious for fifteen. The full manual playbook is in our close-all-apps-on-Mac guide.
Captain Kill Switch adds the missing button: one click in the menu bar sends every app the same clean quit request as Cmd-Q, then closes anything still standing about two seconds later. Finder and everything macOS needs are excluded by an allowlist. Free, signed and notarised. The honest caveat applies here as everywhere: it doesn’t wait for save dialogs — save first, then sweep.
Cheat sheet
- Close window:
Cmd+W(app keeps running) - Quit app:
Cmd+Q(the real Alt+F4) - Force quit:
Cmd+Option+Esc - Quit everything: no shortcut — one click from the menu bar