10 Ways to Kill a Process in Windows

When you wish to kill or stop a running process or any task in your Windows system, you mainly go to the Task Manager to get rid of the trouble. But did you know that there are other ways to kill a process in Windows? Well, here are the 10 ways to kill a process in Windows.

1. Using the Task Manager

Using the Task Manager is the simplest and first way of killing any process. You just have to follow it like this:

• Press and hold “Ctrl + Alt + Delete” keys together, and it will show you some options from where you can click the Task Manager option.
• Then select the “Processes” Tab.
• Search for the process that you want to stop or kill, and then do any of the following.
• Click on End task, or press the delete key from the keyboard, or right-click on the process, and click on End task.

Note: You can simply right-click on the taskbar (for Windows 10) and select the “Task Manager” option, as seen in the screenshot below:

2. Using Command Prompt

Users can kill a process from Command Prompt. The instructions are.

• Open Command Prompt
• Search “tasklist” in the CMD and press “Enter.” It will display all running processes.
• Search for the process you want to kill or type its name like “taskkill /IM Process Name /F”

3. Kill a Process Using PowerShell

In this method, you can open PowerShell as Administrator.

• Run PowerShell as administrator.
• Type this command “Get-Process” that displays all running processes.
• To kill a process, use this cmdlet “Stop-Process -Name “ProcessName” –Force.”

4. Ultimate Process Killer

Ultimate Process Killer is a computer speed-up program that displays all running processes and allows you to kill them in batches. This program is only 153KB in size and requires the following steps.

• Simply run the program
• Refresh the list
• Tick the process boxes that you want to stop or kill
• Click on the Kill Selected Process button

5. Multi-Process Killer

Multi-Process Killer is a simple tool for which Java Runtime Environment is required for it to work. The process is very simple.

• Run the program and select required processes
• Tick the box of only those processes which you want to kill
• Then click on Kill Selected Processes to stop those processes
• It will prompt confirmation and then kills those process

6. KillProcess

KillProcess is a different kind of program that makes use of predefined process lists. The Kill Lists are adjusted manually and can be loaded on your own. The running tasks in the list will be killed.

You need to follow these steps in order to create a list of batch killing processes.

• Open File and then click New Kill List
• Set a name and location for that file
• Click the processes in the list and press the Insert key from the keyboard
• Press the bottom left button on the app to execute that newly created list and kill the selected processes

7. Taskkill

To kill the tasks that are running as Administrator, you need Taskkill. Follow these steps.

• Open the command prompt as Administrator.
• Type tasklist in command prompt to display all running processes along with their PIDs by searching like, tasklist | more
• To kill a process using its PID, you can use the command “taskkill /F /PID pid_number”, and for killing a process by its name, use this command “taskkill /IM “process name” /F.”

8. MiTec Task Manager Deluxe

MiTec Task Manager Deluxe is one of the easiest to perform batch process killing methods.

Like other programs, this tool also requires only to select the required processes that you want to kill. You just have to do this.

• Select all the processes that you want to kill by ticking the boxes against each process
• After you are done, click on the Terminate Checked Processes option

9. Auto Kill Any Process

Auto Kill Any Process has the ability to create lists like other programs discussed above to batch terminate any process. In this, the created list is called the Hitlist. To do this, follow these steps.

• Go to the Add Running Processes tab, click on each process to be killed or stopped from a running list
• Click on the option Save to Hitlist or press the Kill Now button
• Users can create, edit and run custom Hitlists
• There are also timer settings available that execute the selected Hitlist’s after each given time or period.

10. Kill Processes with Command-Line or Scripts

Windows has a built-in command-line tool that posses the ability to stop or kill any running process with the help of a script file or command prompt. The user just has to open the task list using commands and then run it to see which processes are running. Then he has the option to stop those processes which he wants to by using their PID numbers. These processes can also be stopped by using their name with the same command used for PID numbers.

Conclusion

You’ve now seen the 10 ways to kill a process in a Windows environment. I have discussed all the easy solutions, including third-party tools that can help you easily kill any unwanted running processes, including the ones that are supported by administrator rights. For more info or detail, leave a reply in the box below.

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