Windows command line or MS-DOS provides the taskkill command in order to kill processes via the command prompt. The task kill command has different features to be used while killing processes. In this tutorial, we will learn how to kill a task in Windows in different ways with the taskkill command.
taskkill Command Syntax
The taskkill command has the following syntax.
taskkill OPTIONS PROCESS- OPTIONS is different options used to kill given process. This parameter is optional.
- PROCESS is the process specifier which can be the Process ID or Process name. This parameter is required.
taskkill Command Parameters
The taskkill command accepts the following parameters.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| /s | Remote Computer Hostname or IP Address |
| /u | Specify username |
| /p | Specify Password for the user |
| /fi | Filter and match the process to kill according to the process name and other attributes |
| /pid | Specify process ID to kill |
| /im | Specify image name of the process to kill |
| /f | Force to kill |
| /t | Kill the child processes as well |
Kill Process with taskkill Command
The easiest way to kill a process with the taskkill command is using the /pid parameter and providing the process ID of the process. The process ID can be displayed in different ways but the tasklist command can be used from the command line to display process names and process ID.
tasklistWe will find the task or process ID and provide it into the taskkill command.
taskkill /pid 1230Kill Multiple Processes with taskkill Command
The taskkill command can also used to kill multiple processes in a single shot. Just provides every process ID with different /pid option.
taskkill /pid 1230 /pid 3420 /pid 1253Kill Process with Process Name
Another powerfull and useful features of the taskkill is killing a process with its name. Actually not a single processes is kill with the name. All processes which has given name will be killed.
taskkill /im firefox.exeRun taskkill Command As Different User
In a system, multiple users can execute processes. The current user can easily kill its processes but another user process can not be killed if you are not an administrator. The taskkill command can use another user account to kill its processes. Even the Administrator user can be provided to kill every process without the need for the extra privilege. The /u option is used to specify the user name.
taskkill /u "ismail" /pid 2345Kill Process Forcibly with taskkill Command
The taskkill command provides the ability to kill processes forcibly. This could be helpful if process is stuck and do not responds to the kill request. The /f option is used to kill process forcibly.
taskkill /f /pid 2354Kill Process of Remote System with taskkill
The taskkill command provides the ability to kill processes remotely. This means the remote system processes can be killed by specifying the remote system hostname or IP address easily. We can also use the remote system username. In the following example, we will specify the remote system with the /s option and provide the remote system hostname. This can be an IP address too. The /u option is used to specify the remote system user which is a domain user in this case where the “testdomain” is the domain name “ismail” is the domain user. The password is provided with the /p option as “NotSecure“.
taskkill /s wintect /u testdomain\ismail /p "NotSecure" /fi "cmd.exe"Kill Popular Processes/Applications
Some applications are very popular and heavily used where they can stuck regularly. The taskkill command can be used to kill these processes in order to prevent the system bottleneck. Generally high memory and CPU using applications like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or complex commands MS-DOS or PowerShell can be hang on. Below you can find easy way to kill these processes
| Application Name | taskkill Command |
|---|---|
| Google Chrome | taskkill /F /IM Chrome.exe |
| Mozilla Firefox | taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe |
| MS-DOS or cmd.exe | taskkill /F /IM cmd.exe |
| PowerShell | taskkill /F /IM powershell.exe |