Processes That Just Won't Die

Can't kill a process? Under Windows Vista, simply click 'Run' from the start menu, type in 'cmd' to bring up the command line.

Then type "taskkill /PID 5940 /F". This kills process ID# 5940 (iw3mp.exe in this case) forcefully, because otherwise you'd get an 'Access Denied' error when you try to kill the process. The /F option slaps it around a bit and tells it who's boss.

But as it turns out, PID# 5940, aka 'Call of Duty 4 multiplayer' isn't actually running, but the process name still shows up.

Still, handy to know.





Here's a helpful manual for the Windows native taskkill utility:

TASKKILL [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]]
{ [/FI filter] [/PID processid | /IM imagename] } [/T] [/F]

Description:
This tool is used to terminate tasks by process id (PID) or image name.

Parameter List:
/S system Specifies the remote system to connect to.
/U [domain\]user Specifies the user context under which the
command should execute.
/P [password] Specifies the password for the given user
context. Prompts for input if omitted.
/FI filter Applies a filter to select a set of tasks.
Allows "*" to be used. ex. imagename eq acme*
/PID processid Specifies the PID of the process to be terminated.
Use TaskList to get the PID.
/IM imagename Specifies the image name of the process
to be terminated. Wildcard '*' can be used
to specify all tasks or image names.
/T Terminates the specified process and any
child processes which were started by it.
/F Specifies to forcefully terminate the process(es).
/? Displays this help message.

Filters:
Filter Name Valid Operators Valid Value(s)
----------- --------------- -------------------------
STATUS eq, ne RUNNING |
NOT RESPONDING | UNKNOWN
IMAGENAME eq, ne Image name
PID eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le PID value
SESSION eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le Session number.
CPUTIME eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le CPU time in the format
of hh:mm:ss.
hh - hours,
mm - minutes, ss - seconds
MEMUSAGE eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le Memory usage in KB
USERNAME eq, ne User name in [domain\]user
format
MODULES eq, ne DLL name
SERVICES eq, ne Service name
WINDOWTITLE eq, ne Window title

NOTE
----
1) Wildcard '*' for /IM switch is accepted only when a filter is applied.
2) Termination of remote processes will always be done forcefully (/F).
3) "WINDOWTITLE" and "STATUS" filters are not considered when a remote
machine is specified.

Examples:
TASKKILL /IM notepad.exe
TASKKILL /PID 1230 /PID 1241 /PID 1253 /T
TASKKILL /F /IM cmd.exe /T
TASKKILL /F /FI "PID ge 1000" /FI "WINDOWTITLE ne untitle*"
TASKKILL /F /FI "USERNAME eq NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /IM notepad.exe
TASKKILL /S system /U domain\username /FI "USERNAME ne NT*" /IM *
TASKKILL /S system /U username /P password /FI "IMAGENAME eq note*"