I'm in the library and we're using the new imacs because there's no pcs left and we're working on a project in powerpoint/excel and we were playing with the F3/spaces button and now all my windows are off to either side. Like there's a shaded strip around the edge, and i can see the sides of the windows. The dock is at the bottom of the screen, but it's frozen, like i can't click on anything. I can force quit excel/pp but then i'll lose what i was working on. Command-tab doesn't do anything, and F3 doesn't do anything anymore. The only way i can do anything is by using spotlight and starting an application. The switch application thingy doesn't even work anymore. How do i get my windows back!??

-when i open a safari window and try to minimize it, it just freezes into the background. Why is it whenever i use a damn mac they always freeze on me.

[Edited on November 23, 2008 at 4:37 PM. Reason : .]

11/23/2008 4:34:16 PM

sounds like expose kicked in. click on the gray shaded part at the edge of the screen

11/23/2008 4:39:44 PM

I can't. The only thing i can click on that will give me a response is the top menu bar, and the desktop. The dock, shaded side parts, and any window i minimize or lose focus on freezes. I think i'm just going to restart and hope i saved it.

11/23/2008 4:51:04 PM

ask one of the operators to help you?

11/23/2008 5:11:00 PM

They said to restart the computer. The dock was still frozen once i force quit all my applications, so i just restarted.

11/23/2008 5:14:44 PM

definitely sounds like expose

but if you double-click on any blank part of the screen it should have taken you back

11/23/2008 5:25:44 PM

isn't expose just the program selection thing? I think expose must have crashed or something because everything was frozen. I'll stop playing with the F3 button.

11/23/2008 5:46:27 PM

f3 shouldn't have triggered expose, that's f11... unless someone fucked with the expose pane

f3 is the sound mute key

11/23/2008 6:33:14 PM

On this keyboard F3 is the expose key, and F11 is the up volume. It's one of those new thin Apple keyboards.

11/23/2008 7:35:55 PM

"On a mac, everything just kinda works."

11/24/2008 4:15:48 PM

I always manage to freeze my mom's MBP too. I just don't understand it. It's always from trying to do too many things at once.

11/24/2008 5:13:49 PM

lol you people and your macs

11/24/2008 5:20:30 PM

ALL THE PCS IN THE LIBRARY WERE TAKEN!!!

11/24/2008 6:02:27 PM

F3 doesn't do anything for Expose.

Try pressing F9-F12, they are what activate Expose.

But clicking in the gray area should also bring the windows back. If the Expose has crashed, it's not a big deal though.

Click on the Hard Drive icon on the desktop, navigate to /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
(if you actually can't click on the desktop, force-quit the Finder, THEN navigate to this folder).

Open Terminal

Type "top"

Expand the window, until you see the process titled "dock"

Note the process id.

type [control]-c

now just type "kill <pid>" where <PID> is the process ID you noted earlier. The dock should autolaunch and you should be able to unactivate expose as normal.
(note there is a shorter command to do the above, but I can't recall it at this point)

i'm not 100% on this, but you may be able to type:
killall "Dock.app"

to do the same thing as all the steps as above.

[Edited on November 24, 2008 at 7:05 PM. Reason : ]

11/24/2008 6:52:28 PM

Quote :

"F3 doesn't do anything for Expose."

lol yes it does. F3 is the expose key.

11/24/2008 7:24:00 PM

^ hmm... that's new on the Intel iMacs, because it use to look like this:



And there is actually more than 1 Expose effect (there's all windows, application windows, and show desktop), so the other F keys do other things too, I bet (maybe F15+).

[Edited on November 24, 2008 at 7:30 PM. Reason : ]

11/24/2008 7:29:41 PM

^True but the first sentence of my post:

Quote :

"I'm in the library and we're using the new imacs because there's no pcs left "

But yeah, thanks for the advice. I ended up force quiting all the applications and restarting. I just have bad luck with Macs.

11/24/2008 7:31:29 PM