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Kill Processes From Command Prompt

Taskkill allows you to kill or end processes running in Windows from the command prompt. You can end a process by its process ID (PID) or image name (executable filename). Running taskkill without any parameters lists all running processes. Filtering options allow killing processes that meet certain criteria, like a specific window title or username. Taskkill can also remotely kill processes on another computer when run with the appropriate switches.

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190 views

Kill Processes From Command Prompt

Taskkill allows you to kill or end processes running in Windows from the command prompt. You can end a process by its process ID (PID) or image name (executable filename). Running taskkill without any parameters lists all running processes. Filtering options allow killing processes that meet certain criteria, like a specific window title or username. Taskkill can also remotely kill processes on another computer when run with the appropriate switches.

Uploaded by

bhai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Kill Processes from Command Prompt

I'm sure you are familiar with the traditional way to kill or end a process in Windows using Task Manager.  This method is e ective but not
nearly as fun as killing a process in Command Prompt.  Additionally, killing processes in Command Prompt provides much more control and
the ability to end multiple processes at once.

All of this is possible with the TaskKill command. First, let's cover the basics.  You can kill a process by the process ID (PID) or by image name
(EXE lename).

Open up an Administrative level Command Prompt and run tasklist to see all of the running processes:

C:\>tasklist

Image Name PID Session Name Mem Usage


========================= ======== ================ ============
firefox.exe 26356 Console 139,352 K
regedit.exe 24244 Console 9,768 K
cmd.exe 18664 Console 2,380 K
conhost.exe 2528 Console 7,852 K
notepad.exe 17364 Console 7,892 K
notepad.exe 24696 Console 22,028 K
notepad.exe 25304 Console 5,852 K
explorer.exe 2864 Console 72,232 K

In the example above you can see the image name and the PID for each process. If you want to kill the refox process run:

C:\>Taskkill /IM firefox.exe /F

 or

C:\>Taskkill /PID 26356 /F

The /f ag is kills the process forcefully.  Failure to use the /F ag will result in nothing happening in some cases.  One example is whenever I
want to kill the explorer.exe process I have to use the /F ag or else the process just does not terminate.

If you have multiple instances of an image open such as multiple refox.exe processes, running the taskkill /IM refox.exe command will kill all
instances. When you specify the PID only the speci c instane of refox will be terminated.

The real power of taskkill are the ltering options that allow you to use the following variables and operators.

Variables:

STATUS

IMAGENAME

PID

SESSION

CPUTIME

MEMUSAGE

USERNAME

MODULES

SERVICES

WINDOWTITLE

Operators:

eq (equals)

ne (not equal)
gt (greater than)

lt (less than)

ge (greater than or equal)

le (less than or equal)

"*" is the wildcard.

You can use the variables and operators with the /FI ltering ag.  For example, let's say you want to end all processes that have a window title
that starts with "Internet":

C:\>taskkill /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq Internet*" /F

How about killing all processes running under the Steve account:

C:\>taskkill /FI "USERNAME eq Steve" /F

It is also possible to kill a process running on a remote computer with taskkill.  Just run the following to kill notepad.exe on a remote computer
called SteveDesktop:

C:\>taskkill /S SteveDesktop /U RemoteAccountName /P RemoteAccountPassword /IM notepad.exe /F

To learn more about taskkill run it with the /? command just like any other Windows command.

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