Why does the esc key do almost nothing on a Mac?

From what I understand, it's there for some 3rd party software that can use it; e.g. some games, etc. But is IS useful for force-quitting a frozen application or eternally spinning beach ball. You hold down Option and Command and then press ESC and you get the force-quit dialog box and then you can exit the application.

Rick

ESC also lets you back out of Full Screen Mode in App's like iPhoto, QuickTime, YouTube videos in Safari, PowerPoint Presentations and SlideShows in Office Software, etc...

For closing windows (and tabs in browsers), ⌘W closes the currently active window, ⌥⌘W closes all open windows of the active application.

I haven't used Windows myself in decades so I really can't comment on current versions but when I did use it, I recall that the escape key did have more utility there than it does on a Mac. At least it used to in early versions. Thanks for the star 🙂

Rick