Q: How do I force Safari to close when a security breach message is obscuring it?

Command option esc  Force an app to close on your Mac - Apple Support

If that doesn't work . . .

Restart Safari holding down the shift key.

Then restart normally.

I will do the force quit, and restart with the shift key as described above. Additionally, I will empty the browser cache via option+command+E shortcut.

Pleachy --

CAN you describe what is happening to you "new" Mac?  You describe it as a "hideous virus."  Being new to Macs, you may not realize that it's real hard to get one of those on a Mac, and that you will probably only mess things up much more by putting a "security app" on there.  We do have to deal with Malware and Adware, but that's a piece of cake compared to viruses.

Pleachy wrote:

 

Hi All

There was a pop up indicating a security breach and a USA phone number to call - I'm in the UK so that's why I logged in and reported it here. The pop up was accompanied by the high pitched continuous sound. There was no response to mouse movement so i couldn't navigate away from the pop-up to go to Safari which was behind and being unfamiliar with Apple OS and the Mac keyboard I had no clue how to do the equivalent of a shutdown without navigating with the mouse. I don't even know what the Option key is on the keyboard we have looks like Because I have no key that says 'Option' on it but there are some with symbols that are meaningless to a non-Mac user.  I resorted to switching of the Mac to avoid disturbing the neighbours with the persistent hideous noise. However, when I switched it on last night to try the suggestions all had closed down and the noise had stopped so I switched off the Airport so it is no longer connected to our WiFi and watched a DVD!

 

Are you saying that I shouldn't need to load anything security software on the Mac anyway? Doea it have built-in security software even though it is a 2008 machine that doesn't appear to have been updated in anyway since?

 

Thanks.

Macs do not need anti-virus programs, no.  There are no viruses for OS X, so at this time, they are unnecessary.  Should that ever change, then you would need one, but until then, your computer is better off without.  They negatively affect the performance of the system and just wreak more havoc than anything else.  OS X comes with Gatekeeper, which protects the system from known troublemakers.  You'd find this in System Preferences --> Security & Privacy.  Always keep your Gatekeeper setting at "Mac App Store and identified developers."  I'd say 90% of the malware/adware people come here complaining about gets on their system as a result of them downloading something from either a torrent or an aggregate download site, and a lot of the time, those installers are bundled with malware/adware, and when you install what you were looking for, all that other nastiness comes with it.  Changing that setting or downloading via torrent/aggregate download site anyway is a surefire way to put something on your hard drive you don't want to be there.

To answer your previous questions, you Force Quit Safari by going up to  --> Force Quit --> Safari.  You would then restart Safari in Safe Mode by holding down the Shift key while you click on its icon in your dock.  This prevents previous tabs/windows from reopening.  If that's not enough to keep it from coming back, disconnect your computer from the Internet long enough to delete the site from your History, then re-establish your Internet connection.  I don't know what keyboard you have, but on my 2010 MacBook, the Option key is between Control and Command.

Try command - alt - esc to force quit a program. No security software is required. What you are seeing is a java script scam loading. Security software normally won't prevent this from happening.

I see you've gotten lots of more help this morning.

To wrap up, Option key = Alt key.

Some articles I hope will make your transition easier:

https://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/pctomac/

http://www.macworld.com/article/2039343/switch-to-mac-translating-windows-to-os- x.html

http://www.laptopmag.com/pc-to-mac-tutorialhttp://www.macworld.com/article/2039343/switch-to-mac-translating-windows-to-os- x.html

You are welcome.