Task Manager workaround: close process in a second

How many times were you clicking "End Process" button in Windows Task Manager hopelessly trying to shutdown a hanging application?

Next time, you can try the following.

  • Click "Start" -> Select "Run.."

  • Type "cmd" -> Click "OK"

  • In OS Shell window appeared, type "taskkill /IM your_program.exe"


A few necessary comments.

TaskKill.exe is Microsoft command line utility. It kills and unloads from memory a process or a process tree entirely and [almost] instantly. It is available in versions from Windows XP and higher. It comes installed by default but may not be accessible by a regular user in your organization. You may also experience security permission issue, depending on privileges of your user account.