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1. Task Manager Not Opening Windows 7
2. Task Manager Not Responding Reddit

Use the Task Manager to view all processes, services and programs that are running on your Windows 7 computer. The utility also displays computer performance data and presents information about your Internet connections and connected users. Using the Task Manager, you can close frozen programs or terminate processes. In many cases, using Task Manager to close a program that's not responding saves you the trouble of restarting or resetting the PC.

Step 1

Right-click on the taskbar and select '**Start Task Manager**' from the context menu to launch the Task Manager. Alternatively, press '**Ctrl-Shift-Esc**' to launch the utility.

Step 2

Select the '**Applications**' tab to view all applications that are running on your computer. To close an application, select it and click the '**End Task**' button. You can switch to an application and display its window by selecting the program and clicking the '**Switch To**' button. To launch a program, open a folder or a document, or open an Internet resource, click the '**New Task**' button.

Step 3

Select the '**Processes**' tab to view all processes that are currently running on the computer. The amount of CPU used by each process displays in the CPU column, while the program's memory usage displays in the Memory column. The CPU column's entries can help you determine which processes use the most CPU power; frozen programs often consume a lot of power, slowing down your computer. The Memory column helps you see which processes consume too much RAM -- if the RAM fills up, your system performance begins to degrade. You can close any process by selecting it and clicking the '**End Process**' button. To locate the program that created a specific process, right-click the process and select '**Open File Location**' from the context menu.

Step 4

Select the '**Services**' tab to view all Windows services. Services are applications that run in the background. Unlike programs, services don't have a user interface. Some of them are running, while some are stopped -- you can see their status in the Status column. To start or stop a service, right-click it and select '**Start**' or '**Stop**' from the context menu.

Step 5

Select the '**Performance**' tab to view detailed information about the performance of your computer. You can see the CPU usage, the physical memory usage and the amount of free physical memory. Launch the Resource Monitor utility by clicking the 'Resource Monitor' button. This utility displays data about the critical systems -- _CPU_, _memory_, _hard drive_ and _network_ -- of your computer. Look at the **'Up Time'** section if you want to know how long your Windows system has been running since the last reboot.

Step 6

Task Manager Not Opening Windows 7

Select the '**Networking**' tab to view detailed information about your wireless and wired network connections. The bottom section displays the state of the various connections and their link speed.

View all users logged in to your computer by selecting the '**Users**' tab. The name of the user is displayed in the User column and his status -- _Active_ or _Inactive_ -- is displayed in the **Status** column. Select any user and click '**Logoff**' to log him off. Send a message to another user by selecting him and clicking '**Send Message**.'

Warnings

• Closing operating system processes from the Processes tab may lead to problems with some programs or to a fatal system error.
• Stopping services from the Services tab may cause various parts of the operating system to malfunction.

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Want to learn how to force close a program? This article covers the best Windows program killers, from the easiest to the most effective.

It’s frustrating when Windows programs crash. Everyone has clicked on something in an app only to have the window gloss over and show the dreaded Not Responding text.

Your first move to force-close frozen programs might be to open the Task Manager, which is fine. However, if you’d like to force-close in Windows even faster, you can create a shortcut to instantly kill any unresponsive programs. We’ll show you this and other methods to force-close easily.

How to Force Close a Program the Easy Way

To force close a program without the Task Manager, you can use the taskkill command. Typically, you would enter this command at the Command Prompt to kill a specific process. However, it’s clumsy to open the command line window every time a program stops responding, and typing the command every time is a waste. You can force close windows much easier with a shortcut.

First, right-click an empty space on your desktop and choose New > Shortcut. You’ll be asked to enter a location for the shortcut. In that box, paste the following command:

This command is simple to understand when you break it down:

• Taskkill is the command to kill a process, which you should do when something is frozen.
• /f tells the command to force-close the program. Without this, Windows just asks the process to terminate, which won’t work if it’s stuck.
• /fi tells the command to run only on processes that meet the following filter criteria.
• Finally, the text in quotes is the command criteria. You want it to only kill processes with a status equal to Not Responding.

The shortcut creation box will then ask you to name your new shortcut. Call it anything you like, then press Finish. Now you can force-close a program by double-clicking this shortcut at any time. This will kill any window that’s stuck.

How to Force-Close on Windows With a Keyboard Shortcut

To make this force-close process even faster, we can make a custom keyboard shortcut to run the task killer command.

Right-click on your new shortcut and choose Properties. Under the Shortcut tab, click in the Shortcut key box to set a custom keyboard shortcut. Windows will automatically add Ctrl + Alt to any letter you press, but you can change it to Ctrl + Shift if you like.

Because this shortcut will momentarily launch a Command Prompt window, you can set Run to Minimized. Doing so means you won’t see a disrupting brief flash when you press the shortcut.

Alternative Methods to Force-Close in Windows

The above method is the most straightforward way to force-close programs when they lock up. However, there are some other methods and tools you might want to know for doing this.

Try Closing With Alt + F4 First

Task Manager Not Responding Reddit

A basic troubleshooting step when programs freeze up is pressing Alt + F4. This is the Windows keyboard shortcut for closing the current window, equivalent to clicking the X icon in the upper-right corner of a window.

Thus, it won’t force-close a program that’s really stuck, but you can give it a try if the app just had a minor hiccup.

How to Force a Program to Close With SuperF4

SuperF4 is a simple program that lets you force-kill any window, even if it’s not responding. Like the taskkill command discussed above, it forces programs to stop immediately instead of asking them nicely.

Because of this, the program won’t check to make sure that you’ve saved your work before it closes, so take care when using this app. SuperF4 also lets you move your cursor onto any window you want to kill.

Force-Close Programs With a Task Manager Alternative

Technically, another way to force-close programs without the the Task Manager is using a Task Manager alternative5 Powerful Alternatives to the Windows Task Manager5 Powerful Alternatives to the Windows Task ManagerTask Killer would be a better name for the native Windows Task Manager since we only bring it up to kill unresponsive processes. Alternative Task Managers allow you to actually manage your processes.Read More. For instance, if you’re looking for something with more power, Process Explorer will definitely fill that need.

How to Force-Close Programs With AutoHotkey

You can also create a basic AutoHotkey script to force-close windows. You’ll need to download AutoHotkey, then create a script with this line:

Move the finished file to your Startup folder (enter shell:startup into the File Explorer address bar to get there) so it runs every time you log on. Then simply press Win + Alt + Q to kill the current window.

Other Third-Party Apps for Force-Closing Programs

If none of the above options work for you, you’ll find other third-party tools that can force-close Windows programs. ProcessKO is a good option for advanced users, as it offers extras like the ability to kill a specific process after a set time interval.

Most other options are quite similar to the above, so we recommend checking them all out before you look for an alternative.

Force-Closing Windows Has Never Been Easier

Hopefully, you don’t have to deal with programs freezing up too often. If you have a regular problem with a specific piece of software, it might be worth checking for updates or looking for a replacement. Just like when Windows crashes, there’s almost always a reason that a program is having issues.

Despite this, the occasional crash is an unfortunate reality that every computer user deals with. Similarity, another common issue you might come across is locked files in File Explorer. That’s fixable! Learn how to delete a file that’s in use by another programHow to Delete a File in Use by Another ProgramHow to Delete a File in Use by Another ProgramWindows says your file is in use because it's open in another program? We show you how to force rename, delete, or move the file.Read More.

Explore more about: Command Prompt, Keyboard Shortcuts, Task Management, Troubleshooting, Windows Tricks.

1. What is wrong with this sentence?
   Technically, another way to force-close programs without the the Task Manager ..

   You may want to remove the error at some point.

2. Thank You, this helped me

3. Thank You

4. Ahah taskkill shortcut works like a charm! Just run as admin!
   Thanks

5. NOTHING OF THE ABOVE WORKS

6. Awesome. I was trying to run Black Ops, it crashed and locked up my main screen, and my task manager was 'behind' it. So, I ran command prompt, and while completely blind typed out the command, and then realized it needs admin access to close BLOPs, so then I had to re-do it, and this time it closed it down. This'll be amazing for when II try to run old games that LOVE freezing a screen.

7. Thank you so much for this page. Task Manager is disabled on our school computers but we have issues with a program frequently crashing on us. This is a life saver!

8. Ny favourite way to kill a program is to shoot it, or if my parents let me, break my pc with a sledgehammer.

9. I've been having a hell of a time with some games freezing sometimes and being unable to open the task manager.. spending 10 mins having to reboot and reload.

   This is great, thanks!

10. I prefer using a sawed-off double barreled shotgun to end unresponsive programs. I go through 3 computers a week but it's a total stress reliever.

11. If a program has locked up my PC how can I use SuperF4 - i.e., how can SuperF4 respond if I did not start it before my PC locked up? Even if i did start SuperF4, will it respond to canceling the program causing my lockup?
    Seems like a Catch 22 so I'm probably misunderstanding it, please clarify.
    Thanks!
    Dan

12. i just use alt+F4

    • As the article mentioned, this often won't work with tasks that are actually *unresponsive.*

13. Thanks

14. I stopped reading at the statement, 'Windows is generally not known for its stability'. No point in reading an article written by somebody who has no experience in pc platforms.

    • Um, this was written when VISTA was Microsoft's newest OS. Windows has had its fair share of buggy releases.

    • No point in being a faggot either but here you are.

      • JOJO..nice name..you must be a homophobe and a bigot.

    • Okay, so on a scale from 6 - 10 how many times a day do you have to restart your windows computer?

    • I agree with the original statement. All flavors of windows are a steaming pile of shit that I repeatedly have to find my own workarounds for. Microsoft support is a joke, yes I know how to make sure the power cord is plugged in, thank you very much. Windows is a marketing tool designed to get users to pay , pay some more, then buy other unneeded services and products. Microsoft went south shortly after MS-DOS. They are now just a bunch of fat, overpaid, wankers. If my third party applications were all ported to Linux I would never log on to Windows ever again and be that much happier.

      To Gates and his brain dead lackeys: take Windows (especially the privacy violation they call Windows 10) and shove it up your collective a**

15. u can use cmd for it

16. Very helpful!

17. same here james

18. The thing is is that I can't even click the screen because an invisible application is blocking access! I can only click the bottom task bar but not close anything or move windows around.

19. i have windows xp home on my netbook. copied the taskkill.exe file from my win xp pro desktop to my netbook in the windows/system32 folder and it works now.

    here is the taskkill.exe file download link --> [Broken Link Removed]

20. Always having trouble with Vista making unresponsive programs which Task Manager cant shut down for whatever reason. But this fuckin worked! MINT!

21. i, too, could not find taskkill.exe but i did find tskill (no extension) under system 32. altering the command, you get: %windir%system32tskill.exe /f /fi “status eq not responding”, which shortcut i was permitted by xp home to create. have no idea if it will work until i get another responsive app, tho.

22. Another way to make it single-click would be to drag the shortcut to the QuickLaunch bar. That would also solve the problem of having to view the desktop before clicking on it.

23. Windows IS pretty dang stable unless you are still using 3.1. How is 'less RAM to Viruses to poorly designed applications' ANY fault of Windows. I can't remember the last time Windows crashed and it was not the fault of hardware, an application or some driver.

24. thank u
    its a great tool for vista specially:P

25. So, is it possible to create the file taskkill.exe?

    For example, can I copy it from XP Pro and paste it into a folder on my XP computer?

    • I've browsed a few other forums and, yes, it does appear that you can download it or copy it from various websites and it will work on XP home etc. Google it and you'll find various places to download it. I'm no expert, so i wasn't sure where to put it, so I had to change the shortcut to include the full path eg c:taskkill.exe /f /fi “status eq not responding”. There was probably a better way of doing this.

26. It would be nice if authors checked their literature before making people lose their time : XP Pro only, is it?
    Mama mia..

27. I like how you guys always find great uses for very uncommon things that are very useful. What that means is that I know about and how to use Taskkill, but I never thought about creating a simple shortcut to use it. Great job..

28. taskkill.exe is for XP Pro only - pity the author didn't mention that :-(

    • You can download the taskkill.exe aplication and put it in your windows directory and it should work fine

29. Interesting one.But task manager has one advantage.You can end non responsive tasks without minimizing the program window you are running just clicking on the taskbar.

    • well then what you can do is add this shortcut in your taskbar :-b

30. that was great. i got the 'unable to find' error message, too, but when I added spaces worked fine.

    • Can you give some clues as to where we put the spaces? I cut and pasted it from the description and get the message others have received.

31. Dude thats come cool stuff, very useful thanks

32. this would be handy , if it worked for me.
    win XP SP3, i get taskkill.exe file cannot be found error

33. Great Tweak,It is very helpful for users like me.

    As always play with the spec and find something you like. Your elite will often be more based on the fight than what you need. So I don't really remember the exact build, but it's a condition spec build, and often referred to as cheesy.

34. Thanks for the great tip.

    However, When I click after 'taskkill.exe..' it says, 'unable to find file taskkill.exe'

    Do I have to create a file as well as the shortcut?

    Thanks

    • Valid for XP Professional, not Home