What is the Mac equivalent of control-alt-delete?

Option-apple-esc (option-command-esc, or option-cloverleafthingy-esc, I think the key changed on the new MacBooks). It gives you a little window titled “Force Quit Applications”, pretty self explanatory. Only works for applications, if you want to hunt and kill smaller, hidden or system processes use Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor)

Option-Command-esc or you can select Force Quit from the Apple icon menu in the left hand corner to open Force Quit to choose the application you are trying to kill.

A complete list of shortcuts for Mac OS X

And if you are a UNIX geek the other option is to open the Terminal Application, type the command “ps-aux” , find the process that’s running and copy the id number (far left of the screen) and type “Kill whatevertheprocessid#is” and hit Enter.
Good Luck!
R

You can also right click (control+click) on the dock icon for the app and you will get a Force Quit option if a application isn’t responding.

If none of the above techniques work, you can force your machine to shut down by holding down the power button for 6 seconds. It’s not recommended, obviously, but once in a while it’s the only thing that works.

Sometimes the first Force Quit won’t take. If you go right back and force quit it again it will work the second time.

If you want to delete a process or application that is running, use Force Quite.

I cannot find my docking station, therefore I can’t get to anything. All my icons have disappeared. Help?????

My Parallels Desktop claims that “a disk read error occurred” and that I must press cntrl-alt-delete to start it up now. I have tried the Mac version of this command, but only receive a “force quit” option. I am needing to get my Parallels back up and running. Any help would be greatly appreciated.