How to Kill a Process in Windows 11

Method 1Using Windows 📊 Task Manager

Why use this? 📊 Task Manager is a built-in Windows tool that shows you all the programs and background tasks currently running. You can use it to shut down an app that’s misbehaving.

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.

After opening 📊 Task Manager, click ‘More details’ if you see the simple view to access all options for managing running applications.

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

Tip: If a program has smaller related tasks running underneath it (sometimes called child processes), you can click the small arrow next to the main program name. This lets you expand the view and stop only those specific smaller parts if you need to.

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 by typing the ‘taskkill’ command followed by the program’s image name, like ‘msedge.exe’, and ‘/F’ to force it to close.

taskkill /IM ImageName /F

Example:

taskkill /IM msedge.exe /F

This forcefully closes Microsoft Edge.

Tip: You can also stop a program using its PID (the number in the list). For example:

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:

Stop-Process -ID 3440 -Force

Bonus tip: You can stop several programs at once by listing their IDs separated by commas:

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

Summary

When a program freezes or slows down your computer, you have three main ways to stop it: 📊 Task Manager for ease of use, the ‘taskkill’ command for keyboard users, and PowerShell for advanced control.

• 📊 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.

Learning these methods helps keep your computer running smoothly and lets you fix problems when apps don’t respond.

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!