How to Kill a Process in Command Prompt

To kill processes on your computer, you would normally use the Windows Task Manager. The Windows Task Manager is a program designed to help you manage the processes running on your computer. Although the Task Manager is sufficient for most circumstances, it is designed to prevent users from ending processes that it believes are critical which can result in some errors when you try to kill those processes using it. Additionally, some frozen programs may not terminate if you attempt to kill them from Task Manager. When you encounter problems such as these, you're not out of options. A program called Command Prompt may be able to kill processes that Task Manager can't. If you want to kill a process on your computer using Command Prompt, read on!

Part 1 of 2: Viewing Processes Currently Running on Your Computer

1. Start Task Manager. Press the ^ Ctrl key, the ⇧ Shift key, and the ⎋ Esc key in consecutive order at the same time to open Task Manager.
   
   

   
2. View the names of the running processes and identify the problematic process.
   
   

   
   Click the Processes tab in Task Manager and find the name of the process that you want to kill.
   

   • Windows 8/8.1 users should click the Details tab.
   • If a program that is currently running on your screen is frozen and you want to kill it, an easy way to find its name is to click the Applications tab (Processes tab in Windows 8/8.1), right click the window's name, then click Go to process (Go to details in Windows 8/8.1).
   • If the Task Manager window does not display any tabs, double-click in the indicated space in the window to show them.

Part 2 of 2: Killing Processes Currently Running on Your Computer

1.  Open the Start menu. Press the ⊞ Win key.
   
   

   
2.  Start Command Prompt as an Administrator. Right click the first result that appears in the Start menu and click Run as Administrator.
   • If a User Account Control dialog appears, click Yes on it.
   
   

   
3.  Type taskkill /f /im into Command Prompt.
   
   

   
4.  Space at least once after completing the previous step, type a quotation mark, type the name of the process you want to kill, then type another quotation mark to top it off.
   
   

   
5. Kill the process. Press the ↵ Enter key.
   

   1. Command Prompt should display a message similar to SUCCESS: The process "example.exe" with PID 0000 has been terminated.