Windows 8.1: The Missing Manual

Exiting Desktop Programs

When you exit, or quit, an application, the memory it was using is returned to the Windows pot for use by other programs.

If you use a particular program several times a day, like a word processor or a calendar, you’ll save time in the long run by keeping it open all day long. (You can always minimize its window when you’re not using it.)

But if you’re done using a program for the day, exit it, especially if it’s a memory-hungry one like, say, Photoshop. Do so using one of these techniques:

• Choose File→Exit.

• Click the program window’s Close box, or double-click its Control-menu spot (at the upper-left corner of the window).

• Right-click the program’s taskbar button; from the shortcut menu, choose Close or Close Group.

• Point to the program’s taskbar button; when the thumbnail preview pops up, click the little button in its upper-right corner. (If the program had only one window open, then the program exits.)

• Press Alt+F4 to close the window you’re in. (If it’s a program that disappears entirely when its last document window closes, then you’re home.)

• Press Alt+F and then X.

After offering you a chance to save any changes you’ve made to your document, the program’s windows, menus, and toolbars disappear, and you “fall down a layer” into the window that was behind it.