The standard procedure to use when a program seems to be blocked, if it refuses to close or if it occupies too much CPU and memory on the computer, is to terminate it using the Windows task manager. By pressing the CTRL-Shift-ESc keys on the keyboard you can open, in Windows 10 and Windows 7 and 8.1, the task manager or "Task Manager" which lists all the programs and processes active on the PC. Simply select the locked program with the mouse and then press the End activity button at the bottom.
This can be done even if the mouse is locked and the cursor does not move, using the keyboard and the Tab keys to move from one section of the window to the other and the arrow keys to move. To end a program with the keyboard, you can then, from the processes tab, use the Tab key until the column with the name Name is colored, then use the down arrow to select the program to be closed, then press new Tab key to move to the End Task key and press Enter.
There are other ways to terminate programs in a forced way on Windows, which is worth knowing for not being unprepared when needed and for being quick in solving problems of slowdowns or freezes without having to restart the computer.
READ ALSO: Understand why a program closes and ends with error by itself
Right click on an empty space on the desktop, choose New> Shortcut and enter the following path for the shortcut:
taskkill / f / fi "status eq not responding"
Taskkill is the command to kill a process when a process is freeze. / f tells the command to force the program to close. / fi tells the command to execute the kill task only on processes that meet the following filter criteria, ie " status eq not responding ", which means equal status: unresponsive .
Then give a name to the connection and press it every time the PC freezes on a window or a program.
To make this the forced closure of a program that does not respond even faster, we can create a new and personalized keyboard shortcut that executes the Taskkill command.
Press with the right mouse button on the new connection created and go to the Properties ; Under the Shortcut tab, press on the Shortcut Keys box to set your own key combination. Windows will automatically add Ctrl + Alt to any letter you press, but you can change it to Ctrl + Shift if you prefer. For example, you can use the combination CTRL-ALT-K or whatever you want.
Super ALT-F4 remains in the background, without showing up, and enables the ALT-CTRL-F4 key combination to terminate any active program, killing the related process, in a forced way. The program also offers the possibility to press the combination of WINDOWS-F4 keys to choose which window to kill and end it with a click.
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This can be done even if the mouse is locked and the cursor does not move, using the keyboard and the Tab keys to move from one section of the window to the other and the arrow keys to move. To end a program with the keyboard, you can then, from the processes tab, use the Tab key until the column with the name Name is colored, then use the down arrow to select the program to be closed, then press new Tab key to move to the End Task key and press Enter.
There are other ways to terminate programs in a forced way on Windows, which is worth knowing for not being unprepared when needed and for being quick in solving problems of slowdowns or freezes without having to restart the computer.
READ ALSO: Understand why a program closes and ends with error by itself
Alt-F4
How many of you know what happens if you press the key combination ALT-F4 "> on the computer keyboard, that is, with a request for confirmation or with a request to save the modified file if, for example, you did it on Word, and only if the program is not busy doing anything else, which means that if the application you want to close is blocked, with ALT-F4 you won't be able to do anything, and to kill and end it, you will have to resort to the task manager.Terminate programs without task manager
To force a program to close without Task Manager, you can use the taskkill command which is used to close locked windows and programs . This command should be written and executed within the command prompt to end a specific process, but in this way it becomes inconvenient to use. Instead it is better to prepare a shortcuts to put on the desktop or on the taskbar, to be pressed when a program freezes, to terminate it in a forced way .Right click on an empty space on the desktop, choose New> Shortcut and enter the following path for the shortcut:
taskkill / f / fi "status eq not responding"
Taskkill is the command to kill a process when a process is freeze. / f tells the command to force the program to close. / fi tells the command to execute the kill task only on processes that meet the following filter criteria, ie " status eq not responding ", which means equal status: unresponsive .
Then give a name to the connection and press it every time the PC freezes on a window or a program.
To make this the forced closure of a program that does not respond even faster, we can create a new and personalized keyboard shortcut that executes the Taskkill command.
Press with the right mouse button on the new connection created and go to the Properties ; Under the Shortcut tab, press on the Shortcut Keys box to set your own key combination. Windows will automatically add Ctrl + Alt to any letter you press, but you can change it to Ctrl + Shift if you prefer. For example, you can use the combination CTRL-ALT-K or whatever you want.
Other ways of terminating processes forcibly
SuperF4
SuperF4 is a simple program that allows you to force close any window, even if it doesn't respond. Like the taskkill command discussed above, it forces programs to stop immediately instead of using the "gentle" request of the Alt-F4 key combination. For this reason, the program will not make requests to save the work that was being done so it is to be used carefully. SuperF4 also allows you to select the window to be forced to end by moving the mouse cursor over it.Super ALT-F4 remains in the background, without showing up, and enables the ALT-CTRL-F4 key combination to terminate any active program, killing the related process, in a forced way. The program also offers the possibility to press the combination of WINDOWS-F4 keys to choose which window to kill and end it with a click.
ProcessKO
ProcessKO is another option to forcefully end programs and windows, with the ability to kill a specific process after a set time interval.Process Explorer
Microsoft's Process Explorer is one of the programs that function as an enhanced task manager, which lists the active programs and processes and allows you to analyze any technical information, recognize if it is a good program or a malware program and to terminate blocked programs .KillemAll
KillemAll is a program that forces the closure of all the processes and programs together that I talked about some time ago. It does not serve, therefore, to close only those that do not respond, but all active ones, except of course the essential Windows processes. It works a bit like a panic button, to be used to close all open programs and windows in one go.rkill
rKill terminates all suspicious processes on Windows and is an essential tool to use when you suspect the presence of a malware or other type of infection, to be used always before launching the antivirusREAD ALSO: If the PC does not move and does not respond, how to unlock it without restarting Windows
