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How to close any application even if task manager unable to close

Task Manager > Process TAB > image name > right click > end process

2 Answers 2

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You could try giving the taskkill command a shot:

taskkill /f /im program_name.exe

Although I believe it uses the same method to kill processes as Task Manager. Worth a shot though before reaching for the third party tools.

If you're interested in other programs, I've found that Sysinternals Process Explorer can sometimes kill things Task Manager can't. There is also a nifty tool called PsKill, which I've used to kill some processes that Task Manager wouldn't.

What processes are you trying to kill though? Windows will prevent you from killing certain services for stability reasons.

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  • taskkill showing it has killed process but process is still not closed Jan 1, 2010 at 9:44
  • Does the process keep returning or is it never actually killed? I know things like wuauclt (Windows Automatic Update Client) will respawn to continue updates if you try to kill them. What process is giving you trouble?
    – user1931
    Jan 1, 2010 at 9:57
  • process tab is still showing on taskbar. when i click on process tab nothing happens Jan 1, 2010 at 10:05
  • thanks - Sysinternals Process Explorer killed the process Jan 1, 2010 at 10:14
  • You're welcome, happy new year! :)
    – user1931
    Jan 1, 2010 at 10:15
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I can't remember the name of it but I used to have a Windows application that had something like 10 different ways to kill a process, including attaching a debugger and terminating it. Google search has failed me, however.

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