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Pausing An Application

Pausing an application essentially freezes it in time. No data is lost, nothing in the application is alterted. All memory and any other resources associated with the application remain intact. Pausing an application simply prevents it from using any processor, essentially making the application appear that it has frozen.

Pausing is great for applications that take up alot of processor and dont finish quickly. You can pause that 10 minute operation in photoshop to quickly look up something in Safari or check your e-mail, then 'resume' Photoshop to allow to keep chugging along with the operation.

To pause an application (or applications) simply select the applications you want to pause and press the 'Pause' button.

Application Priority Slider

Automatic Resuming

App Stop will automatically resume the operation of all paused applications when prompted to quit, preventing applications from permanently paused.

Warning

Be careful when pausing applications, especially applications that are owned by the root process. Pausing an application that is vital to the system's operation (kernal_task for instance) may cause unexpected results such as a freeze or kernal panic.

It is not recommended to pause applications that are running under the classic environment. Some have reported that pausing applications running under classic will cause your computer to freeze.

See also

Force Quitting An Application
Application Actions Topics