How to Kill a Process in Windows 11

Method 1Using Windows 📊 Task Manager

📊 Task Manager, a built-in Windows tool, displays all active programs and background tasks on your computer. Users can employ Task Manager to shut down applications that are not working correctly.

What happens when you do this? The frozen program closes immediately.

How to open 📊 Task Manager:

1. Press CTRL + SHIFT + Esc keys together on your keyboard.

OR

1. Press CTRL + ALT + DELETE, then click 📊 Task Manager on the screen.

Once 📊 Task Manager opens:

1. Click More details at the bottom if it looks simple.
2. Go to the Processes tab at the top.
3. Look through the list and find the program that’s frozen or using a lot of memory.
4. Select the program name.
5. Do one of these:

   • Press the Delete key on your keyboard, OR
   • Right-click the program and choose End task, OR
   • Click the End task button at the bottom right.

When a program stops working in Windows 11, you can use 📊 Task Manager to stop it. To kill a process using Task Manager, first open it, then click ‘More details’ if you see a simple view. Next, go to the ‘Processes’ tab to find the program you want to close.

You might see a pop-up asking if you’re sure you want to stop the program. Click End process to confirm.

Method 2Using Command Prompt with taskkill

Why use this? If you’re comfortable with typing commands, you can stop a program using Command Prompt or Windows PowerShell. These methods offer more control.

What happens when you do this? The program closes immediately without any pop-ups.

Step 1Open Command Prompt or PowerShell

1. Search for Command Prompt or PowerShell in the ⊞ Start menu and open it.
2. Flag: If you need to close system processes, right-click and choose Run as administrator.

Step 2See all running programs

Type this command and press Enter:

tasklist

You’ll see a list like this:

Image Name PID Session Name Session# Mem Usage
========================= ======== ================ =========== ============
System Idle Process 0 Services 0 8 K
System 4 Services 0 144 K
msedge.exe 652 Console 1 26,528 K
winlogon.exe 740 Console 1 12,280 K

Step 3Stop a program by name

You can kill a process in Windows 11 using the command prompt if you know the program’s exact name. The ‘taskkill’ command lets you forcefully close applications. For example, to kill the Microsoft Edge process, you would type ‘taskkill /IM msedge.exe /F’ and press Enter.

taskkill /IM ImageName /F

Example:

taskkill /IM msedge.exe /F

This forcefully closes Microsoft Edge.

taskkill /PID 652 /F

Method 3Using PowerShell with Stop-Process

Why use this? PowerShell is a more powerful command tool. It lets you stop one or many programs at the same time.

What happens when you do this? The program or programs close immediately.

Step 1Open Windows PowerShell

1. Search for PowerShell in the ⊞ Start menu and open it.
2. Flag: To stop system processes, right-click and choose Run as administrator.

Step 2List all running programs

Type this command and press Enter:

Get-Process

You’ll see a list like this:

Handles NPM(K) PM(K) WS(K) CPU(s) Id SI ProcessName
------- ------ ----- ----- ------ -- -- -----------
...
466 18 4544 23592 2.25 3440 1 msedge
...

Step 3Stop a program by name

Use this command and replace ProcessName with the program name:

Stop-Process -Name "ProcessName" -Force

Example:

Stop-Process -Name "msedge" -Force

Step 4Stop a program by process ID

Use this command:

You can stop multiple programs simultaneously by listing their Process IDs (PIDs), which are unique numbers identifying each running program. For example, to stop programs with PIDs 1234 and 5678, you would enter "1234,5678". This saves time when closing many unwanted applications in Windows 11.

Stop-Process -ID 3440,652,740 -Force

Summary

There are a few ways to kill a process in Windows 11 when a program stops responding. The easiest method for most people is using 📊 Task Manager to end the task. You can also use the ‘taskkill’ command in the command prompt or the ‘Stop-Process’ command in PowerShell if you prefer typing commands.

• 📊 Task Manager is the easiest way for most users. Just open it, find the program, and click End task.
• taskkill command works when you like using the keyboard. Type a command and press Enter.
• Stop-Process command in PowerShell gives you the most control and lets you stop multiple programs at once.

Understanding process termination methods helps keep your Windows 11 computer running smoothly and allows you to fix problems when applications, such as Microsoft Word, stop responding. This knowledge prevents system slowdowns and potential data loss caused by frozen programs.

If you want to learn more about using 📊 Task Manager, check out this guide: How to Use 📊 Task Manager in Windows 11

For more about opening Command Prompt and PowerShell, see these guides:

How to Open Command Prompt in Windows 11

How to Open PowerShell in Windows 11

Good luck managing your Windows 11 processes!