How To Quit Install In Progress On Mac

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At times, you might find yourself needing to cancel or quit an installation process on your Mac. Maybe it’s because it’s taking too long, or perhaps you’ve mistakenly initiated the wrong installation, or possibly the installation has hung. Regardless of the reason, this blog post will walk you through the steps to quit an install-in-progress on your Mac.

Method 1: Using the Dock

The first and easiest method to quit an install-in-progress is via the Dock.

  1. Locate the installation icon on your Dock. The Dock is the bar at the bottom of your screen where the applications are found.
  2. Right-click or control-click the installation icon.
  3. A menu will appear, choose Quit.

This method will work most of the time. However, if the installation process doesn’t stop, you may have to force quit it.

Method 2: Force Quit via Apple Menu

If the installation process doesn’t stop the normal way, you can force it to quit from the Apple menu.

  1. Click on the Apple logo located at the top left of your screen.
  2. Select Force Quit.
  3. A window will appear listing all the active applications. Select the installer and click on the Force Quit button.

Method 3: Force Quit via Terminal

If the above methods don’t work, you can force quit the installation process using the Terminal.

Follow the steps below:

  1. Go to Applications > Utilities and open Terminal.
  2. Type the following command: top -o cpu
  3. Press Enter. This command will display a list of running processes along with their CPU usage. The processes using the most CPU will be at the top.
  4. Find the process you want to quit (the installer), and note the PID (Process ID) number.
  5. Type the following command, replacing “PID” with the actual PID number: kill PID
  6. Press Enter.
top -o cpu
kill PID

This will force quit the installation process.

Conclusion

Quitting an installation in progress on a Mac can be done in a few simple steps, either through the Dock, by force quitting via the Apple menu, or using Terminal. However, it’s always best to let installations complete as interrupting them can cause problems.