# A way to make programs in Windows Mobile actually close?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 12, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562 "2007-03-12T05:04:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562/1 "2007-03-12T05:04:44Z")

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So Microsoft, being ever so intelligent, decided that, unlike in desktop Windows, where the small X in the upper right corner of the program window closes it, it will only make the program “minimize” (no actual taskbar, so not really minimized, just pushed to the background.) I don’t uinderstand why this is, other than merely as a means to have multiple programs at once, and not take up screen real esate with a taskbar-like thing. Since the screen is small, this makes some sense, but would it have been so hard to make a ‘\_’ button to do that, _and_ an ‘x’ button to actually close it?

So mini-rant aside, is there some registrry/program hack I can do that will make the programs close? Not all of them have a real menu with an ‘exit’/‘close’ option, so the only way I can actually close them is to go into settings-\>system-\>memory-\>running programs, and then stop them. Very tedious and annoying, and I want something better.

(Though aside from that, I have no major gripes with the phone.)

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**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562/2 "2007-03-12T08:35:25Z")

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Try the small and free [Magic Button](http://www.trancreative.com/mb.aspx).

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562/3 "2007-03-12T12:15:13Z")

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Hold down the “OK” button and the running programs list will display, letting you close them as necessary.

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**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562/4 "2007-03-12T12:42:39Z")

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On T-Mobile phones the fun hack is to remap the useless TZones button to the task manager-check howardforums for how to’s…

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**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-way-to-make-programs-in-windows-mobile-actually-close/395562/5 "2007-03-12T18:42:36Z")

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I’ll try that magic button thing.

[QUOTE=RealityChuck]  
Hold down the “OK” button and the running programs list will display, letting you close them as necessary.  
[/QUOTE]

But not all programs _have_ an ok button, some just have the x.