To kill a process, you can use the command Stop-Process.

Or you can try Ctrl + Break shortcut.

Answer from bluray on Stack Overflow
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Microsoft Learn
learn.microsoft.com › en-us › powershell › module › microsoft.powershell.management › stop-process
Stop-Process (Microsoft.PowerShell.Management) - PowerShell | Microsoft Learn
The Stop-Process cmdlet stops one or more running processes. You can specify a process by process name or process ID (PID), or pass a process object to Stop-Process. Stop-Process works only on processes running on the local computer. On Windows Vista and later versions of the Windows operating system, to stop a process that is not owned by the current user, you must start PowerShell by using the Run as administrator option.
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PDQ
pdq.com › blog › what-is-the-powershell-equivalent-of-taskkill
What is the PowerShell equivalent of taskkill? | PDQ
February 12, 2026 - TL;DR: The PowerShell equivalent of taskkill is Stop-Process. It terminates running processes by name or ID, supports force-stopping unresponsive apps, and works natively with Get-Process for safer scripting. If you’re coming from Command Prompt and moving your workflows into PowerShell, process management is one of the first things you’ll want to translate.
Discussions

Simple command to kill off several instances of the same .exe
Stop-Process -Name "ProcessName" -Force Or without powershell taskkill /IM "process.exe" /F In both of these we include a force method, I honestly like taskkill over PS option here as it has some built in flags that save you some piping. Speficcally /t adding that to taskill kills all the child processes, important but dangerous. More on reddit.com
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windows - How do I kill a process in Powershell - Stack Overflow
Say I'm running a python script that doesn't exit properly. The powershell console does not return control to me without having to close the shell and open a new one. With Bash I can simply press C... More on stackoverflow.com
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powershell - How do I kill a processes running a given executable? - Stack Overflow
I want to kill a job. First, I need it's process Id, so I execute: get-process And I get a boatload of processes. OK, I just want one particular process, so I use: get-process | select-string -p... More on stackoverflow.com
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Kill a process after it runs for X amount of time
The win32_service WMI class includes process information like the processId. The process information returned by Get-Process includes a starttime. More on reddit.com
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People also ask

How do I stop a PowerShell command from running?

You can interrupt and stop a PowerShell command while it is running by pressing Control-C. A script can be stopped with the command exit. This will also close the PowerShell console.

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comparitech.com
comparitech.com › home › net admin › tutorial: powershell kill process command
PowerShell Kill Process Command: Step-by-Step Tutorial
How do I kill Windows processes from the command line?

At the command line, you can terminate a Windows process with the command taskkill. To use this command, you need to know its process ID (PID). You can get a list of all running tasks with the command tasklist. Once you know the PID, use the taskkill command in this manner: taskkill /PID /F. Type in the process ID without quotes instead of .

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comparitech.com
comparitech.com › home › net admin › tutorial: powershell kill process command
PowerShell Kill Process Command: Step-by-Step Tutorial
What is the kill PID command?

The kill command is used on Linux to terminate a running process. The format is just kill followed by the process ID. You can get a list of running processes by using the top command. The kill command doesn’t work in Windows – use taskkill instead.

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comparitech.com
comparitech.com › home › net admin › tutorial: powershell kill process command
PowerShell Kill Process Command: Step-by-Step Tutorial
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Comparitech
comparitech.com › home › net admin › tutorial: powershell kill process command
PowerShell Kill Process Command: Step-by-Step Tutorial
November 11, 2024 - Once you know the PID, use the taskkill command in this manner: taskkill /PID <PID> /F. Type in the process ID without quotes instead of <PID>. The kill command is used on Linux to terminate a running process.
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Dzhavat Ushev
dzhavat.github.io › 2020 › 04 › 09 › powershell-script-to-kill-a-process-on-windows.html
PowerShell script to kill a process on Windows | Dzhavat Ushev
Most blog posts related to killing a process on Windows show the following solution: C:\> netstat -ano | findstr "PID :PortNumber" List of processes using a particular port · C:\> taskkill /PID pidNumber /F · Terminating a process by PID · This solution works fine but it’s manual, the ...
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ITPRC
itprc.com › home › network tools
How To Use PowerShell To Kill Processes - Step-by-Step Guide
March 12, 2021 - Soon you’ll see a list of all ... PID on the process that you want to kill and then execute the following command: taskkill /f /PID 00000....
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Select-String is probably not the hammer you wanna use for this particular nail (see below) :-)

Get-Process has a -Name parameter that takes a wildcard:

Get-Process -Name nginx
# or
Get-Process -Name *nginx*

To kill the process, either call Kill() directly on the object:

$nginxProcess = Get-Process nginx |Select -First 1
$nginxProcess.Kill()

... or simply pipe the process instances to Stop-Process:

Get-Process -Name nginx |Stop-Process

As you can see, we never actually need to locate or pass the process id - the Process object already has that information embedded in it, and the *-Process cmdlets are designed to work in concert - PowerShell is all about command composition, and this is an example of it.

That being said, Stop-Process is also perfectly capable of killing processes by name alone:

Stop-Process -Name nginx

How did I know the *-Process cmdlets had a -Name parameter?

Apart from reading the help files and documentation (I get it, I don't want to read anything either unless I absolutely have to ;-)), a quick way to learn about the parameters exposed by a cmdlet is by running Get-Command <commandName> -Syntax:

PS ~> Get-Command Stop-Process -Syntax

Stop-Process [-Id] <int[]> [-PassThru] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Stop-Process -Name <string[]> [-PassThru] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

Stop-Process [-InputObject] <Process[]> [-PassThru] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

The output shows us 3 distinct "parameter sets" (combinations of parameter input accepted by the command), and the required and optional arguments we can pass to it.


What's wrong with Select-String?

The Select-String cmdlet is the PowerShell cognate to grep - it takes some input, and performs regular expression matching against it based on whatever pattern you give it.

But grep is only useful when you're operating on strings - and as you've already found, Get-Process returns structured .NET objects, not flat strings.

Instead, the PowerShell-idiomatic approach is to filter the data, using the Where-Object cmdlet:

Get-Process | Where-Object Name -like '*nginx*'

Here, we instruct Where-Object to only let through object that have a Name property, the value of which must satisfy the wildcard pattern *nginx*.

Where-Object also supports arbitrary filter expressions, by accepting a scriptblock - PowerShell will assign the current pipeline object being evaluated to $_ (and $PSItem):

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*nginx*' }

... which you can extend to whatever degree you need:

# Only let them through if a specific user is executing
Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*nginx*' -and $env:USERNAME -ne 'Quarkly'}
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Note: PowerShell must be run as Administrator in order to execute these commands.

Kill a process with a known PID:

Syntax:

Stop-Process -Force -Id <pid>

Example:

Stop-Process -Force -Id 1234

Kill a process with a known name:

Syntax:

Stop-Process -Force -Name <name>

Example:

Stop-Process -Force -Name Taskmgr

Kill a process with a name wildcard search pattern

Syntax:

Get-Process -Name <pattern> | Stop-Process -Force

Example:

Get-Process -Name *skmg* | Stop-Process -Force
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SharePoint Diary
sharepointdiary.com › sharepoint diary › powershell › how to kill a process in powershell with stop-process?
How to Kill a Process in PowerShell with Stop-Process? - SharePoint Diary
October 22, 2025 - Type the PowerShell command Get-Process to view a list of running processes and their process IDs · Identify the process ID of the process that you want to kill · Type Stop-Process -Id "Process ID" to kill the process · Replace with the process ...
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SS64
ss64.com › ps › stop-process.html
Stop-Process kill - PowerShell - SS64.com
# get Firefox process $firefox = Get-Process firefox -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue if ($firefox) { # try gracefully first $firefox.CloseMainWindow() # kill after five seconds Sleep 5 if (!$firefox.HasExited) { $firefox | Stop-Process -Force } } Remove-Variable firefox ... Stop process ID# 6464 and prompt before stopping the process (this will display the process name first): ... Invoke-Command - Run commands on local and remote computers.
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NinjaOne
ninjaone.com › home › blog › it ops › how to kill a process in windows: 4 methods
How to Kill a Process in Windows | NinjaOne
April 30, 2025 - This command can end a process if Task Manager doesn’t end it and you don’t want to restart your device. Here’s how to end Windows tasks using the PowerShell Stop-Process cmdlet:
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Websentra
websentra.com › powershell-kill-process-command
Tutorial: PowerShell Kill Process Command - Step-by-Step Guide
July 28, 2023 - The Stop-Process is PowerShell’s own way to kill a process (although they prefer to use the word “Stop” rather than killing!). Stop-Process is a cmdlet that performs similar to the TASKKILL command but gives you a slightly different set of options.
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Wikihow
wikihow.com › computers and electronics › operating systems › windows › 4 ways to use the taskkill command in cmd & powershell
4 Ways to Use the Taskkill Command in CMD & PowerShell
February 19, 2026 - Type the "tasklist" command and find a program you want to end. Type "taskkill /IM [image name]" and hit Enter. Use " /F" at the end of the command to force-close the process, and type "/T" to kill all its child processes.
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ITT Systems
ittsystems.com › home › powershell kill process command – step-by-step tutorial
PowerShell Kill Process Command – Step-by-Step Tutorial
July 26, 2023 - In this guide, you learned how to kill a process using the stop-process and taskkill command in PowerShell. You can also kill a process in the remote server using PowerShell.
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Virtualization Howto
virtualizationhowto.com › home › devops › powershell kill a process from the command line
PowerShell Kill a Process from the Command Line - Virtualization Howto
August 16, 2024 - This allows for precise identification. # List process with a specific PID (e.g., 1234) Get-Process -Id 1234 ... An alternative to the taskkill command is the stop process command in PowerShell.
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disown
webservertalk.com › powershell › kill-process
PowerShell Kill Process Command - End/Shutdown a Program!
May 4, 2021 - Next, open the PowerShell interface and run the following command to list all running processes and their PIDs: ... If you want to terminate the application WordPad, you will need to kill the process of wordpad.exe and cmd.exe application by its PID or by its name.
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Windows Command Line
windows-commandline.com › powershell-kill-process
How to Kill process from PowerShell
May 15, 2019 - Powershell provides command Stop-Process to kill a process from command prompt.
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Computer Performance
computerperformance.co.uk › home › powershell
PowerShell Scripting Basics: Kill Process | Stop-Process | Code Examples
January 15, 2019 - See how Task Manager sets process priority in Windows 8 » · Typical Microsoft, there are always at least two way of achieving the same goal. Example 3 provides the simplest and most descriptive method of closing all notepad.exe programs. # PowerShell 'Stops' Windows Process Clear-Host Stop-Process -name notepad · Note 4: Strictly speaking, the parameter is -processName · Note 5: The Stop-Process is versatile. If you execute a command with this Verb-Noun combination, then you need either the -name parameter, or the -id parameter.