How to force restart a problematic Mac

One of the first things to try when troubleshooting a computer is to simply restart it — but how do you restart a Mac if it’s frozen, and you can’t click the Apple icon? If your MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro or desktop Mac is acting up, and you don’t know what to do next, consider force-restarting. Often used as a last resort, a force restart may be your quickest (and only) option for getting your Mac up and running again.