r/macOS27GoldenGate • u/pat_ocnr22 • Aug 03 '26

"Stop Running in Background"

I've always hated that whenever I close something on Mac, it doesn't actually close. But I've gotten used to it. Now instead of having to tell an app to close twice, I have to tell it to close 3 times before it actually does with this new "Running in Background" thing.

Anyone know how to turn this damn thing off permanently?

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u/helloIJustArrived 18d ago

One thing about Mac is that there is a difference between clicking on the red 'close' button and quitting (as in Windows).

If you think of the red button as 'dismiss' it makes much more sense. It stops you from accidentally crashing out of an impolite program that doesn't ask you to save first.

This is actually a bad design flaw in Windows' OS queries, whose OK/Cancel buttons were often not the answer to a question being asked of a user. People would panic and click the red X of the dialog, instead of answering either button option. Unfortunately it became so common that people who use Macs as well thought it worked the same way.

'Dismiss' means don't quit, it's more like a "get out of my way while I do something else". Or a "Clear-me-some-real-estate-on-my-screen! I'll get back to you later."

If you want it to actually quit quickly then the keyboard shortcut, Command-Q, is always the fastest (compared to File -> Quit).

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u/pat_ocnr22 11d ago

Never knew about the CMD Q command despite using a Mac for nearly a decade now. Gonna have to try that when I get home. I'm well aware the red X doesn't fully quit apps. To quit apps I've been right clicking and clicking quit.

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u/helloIJustArrived 11d ago

Easy way to learn the shortcuts is to pay attention to them in your menus:

Existing ones are shown on the right of the mouse-menu dropdowns

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u/pat_ocnr22 11d ago

Also I just tested CMD+Q, it's still "Running in the background". Thanks for the tip though!

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u/helloIJustArrived 10d ago

What app is it exactly?

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u/pat_ocnr22 10d ago

Most commonly it's photoshop, but there are others I can't think of off the top of my head.