Note how this is very different from closing windows on quit, which closes all the windows when the application is quitting, thereby preventing the auto-restore function of Mac OS X from relaunching those windows. If you happened to turn off auto-save in Mac OS X at some point, just turn it back on to get uninterrupted use out of this keystroke. Close All is best used in applications when auto-save is left enabled, otherwise the window closing process will halt as a save dialog box is summoned and waiting for an action.

Or you can try it in another app by opening a bunch of documents in something like TextEdit or Preview and closing those all out together too. Just open a bunch of new Finder windows (by hitting Command+N in modern versions of Mac OS X a bunch) and then hit Command+Option+W to close them all out.

The windows close rapidly, if you want to quickly try this out yourself an easy place to start is in the Mac OS X Finder. The short video below demonstrates this trick as well:

This transforms “Close” into “Close All” as shown in this screen shot: Not into keyboard shortcuts? You can also access the “Close All Windows” option from File menu options in either the Finder or just about any Mac application, but it’s invisible by default until you hold down the “Option” key when choosing the File menu. If the window is open, it will close after hitting that keystroke combination. Hitting Command+Option+W will close all windows in the currently active Mac application, or the Finder of Mac OS X.

It’s easy to remember, just add Option to the traditional close shortcut making it this: Command + Option + WĬommand + Option + W will close ALL windows on a Mac

Keyboard shortcut close all windows mac