It tells taskkill that the next parameter something.exe is an image name, a.k.a executable name
C:\>taskkill /?
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.
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It tells taskkill that the next parameter something.exe is an image name, a.k.a executable name
C:\>taskkill /?
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.
it allows you to kill a task based on the image name like taskkill /im iexplore.exe or taskkill /im notepad.exe
you must kill child process too if any spawned to kill successfully your process
taskkill /IM "process_name" /T /F
/T = kills child process
/F = forceful termination of your process
The taskkill and powershell (kill) methods didn't work for me; it still said "Access Denied".
I had better luck with this:
wmic process where "name='myprocessname.exe'" delete
Try this: wmic process where “name=‘myprocessname.exe’” delete
If you get an error with that too the see this:
Taskkill command fails with error initialization failure Windows
I have a script that kills a specific task. It has stopped running. When I manually type the command TASKKILL /F /IM “notepad.exe” I get error initialization failure. This script works on all other 2003 and 2008 servers. I am not actually trying to kill notepad that is just an example. It won’t work if typed in manually.
So, this one has me pretty stumped. I’m pretty sure I’m doing everything right here, which is why I’m stumped, but that’s also why I’m coming to the experts for help!
I have a user who wants to have a script autorun at 3am daily, which will kill the current kiosk-style PowerPoint that is running, and then re-open the file with Powerpoint - doing this because the file has been updated in the meantime, so it will open a new file for the next day.
The machine running the kiosk display is a woefully outdated windows Vista Machine. Not sure if that will affect cmd syntax of commands.
Anyway, here is my current script in a *.bat file:
@echo off
taskkill /IM PPTVIEW.exe /t /f
start PPTVIEW.exe “S:[File-Path]\Run Daily.ppsx”
And that’s it. everything I know about *.bat files says that this should work just fine. And it does, on my personal Windows 10 machine in the office. But it doesn’t run on the Windows Vista; it gives the “invalid namespace” error in cmd, and also a dialog box that says “Windows cannot find PPTVIEW.exe”.
I double checked that the task was running in task manager and that I had the right name, and I do. Furthermore, I was able to use Powershell to “Stop-Process -Name PPTVIEW -Force”, without issue.
I’ve tried giving cmd the exact file-path of PPTVIEW in the start command as well, but it still claimed it couldn’t find it. So the problem is somewhat two-fold; the machine can’t find the process to terminate it, and also cannot find the process to start it again.
Essentially I want a command in which will open .exe files yet I do not know what I should be using presently. I have nothing else in mind.
"End Process" on the Processes-Tab calls TerminateProcess which is the most ultimate way Windows knows to kill a process.
If it doesn't go away, it's currently locked waiting on some kernel resource (probably a buggy driver) and there is nothing (short of a reboot) you could do to make the process go away.
Have a look at this blog-entry from wayback when: http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/08/17/unkillable-processes.aspx
Unix based systems like Linux also have that problem where processes could survive a kill -9 if they are in what's known as "Uninterruptible sleep" (shown by top and ps as state D) at which point the processes sleep so well that they can't process incoming signals (which is what kill does - sending signals).
Normally, Uninterruptible sleep should not last long, but as under Windows, broken drivers or broken userpace programs (vfork without exec) can end up sleeping in D forever.
taskkill /im myprocess.exe /f
The "/f" is for "force". If you know the PID, then you can specify that, as in:
taskkill /pid 1234 /f
Lots of other options are possible, just type taskkill /? for all of them. The "/t" option kills a process and any child processes; that may be useful to you.