End OS process tree equivalent

[szolr]

I remember on Windows you could fire up the task manager and go to the processes tab. There was one called explorer.exe, which you could end (end process tree). This got rid of the task bar, start menu, desktop and basically everything on the screen. Is there an equivalent for OS X? This could be useful when the Mac crashes for instance, instead of restarting the computer.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Applications > Utilities >> ACTIVITY MONITOR

and

CMD+SHIFT+ESC