How to end unresponsive processes that can't be taskkilled in Windows?

How do I kill an unresponsive process or task in Windows when it becomes completely unresponsive (window becomes a ligt grey, cursor a rotating blue ring)?

• Clicking [X] or trying to end process in taskmgr has no effect [status is unresponsive].
• Task can't be killed using Process Explorer [procexp] or with any of the following:

  TaskKill /f /pid %pid%
  
  TaskKill /f /im %exec.exe%
  

  Stop-Process -Force -Name $name
  

Solution 1:

To end unkillable processes, use WMIC [Windows Management Instrumentation Console] in cmd or powershell, replace the variables with the PID/name of the process to kill:

• cmd (variable: %pid%):

  WMIC Process where ProcessID=%pid% delete
  

• powershell (variable: ${name}):

  WMIC Process where Name="${name}.exe" delete