In Windows, how can I termiante an application if I can't get the task manager to the foreground?

Solution 1:

Use Powershell. Start it as Administrator, then use Get-Process in combination with Stop-Process to list and stop processes/tasks. To list the tasks/processes:

Get-Process

To list the processes that are not responding:

Get-Process | Where { !$_.Responding }

To stop non-responding tasks:

Get-Process | Where { !$_.Responding } | Stop-Process -Force

To stop tasks based on task ID, first get the processes. Note the ID of the process you want to stop, then run the Stop-Process cmdlet. Replace IDofProcess with the process ID

Get-Process
Stop-Process -PID IDofPRocess -Force

Solution 2:

You can use the free AutoHotkey.

The following script will kill the process owning the active window when pressing Ctrl+Alt+K:

^!k::                                         ; Ctrl+Alt+K
WinGet, PID, PID, % "ahk_id " WinExist("A")   ; Get process owning active window
Process, Close, %PID%                         ; Close this process

After installing AutoHotKey, put the script in a .ahk file and double-click it to test. You may stop the script by right-click on the green H icon in the traybar and choosing Exit. To have it run on login, place it in the Startup group at C:\Users\USER-NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

Useful AutoHotkey documentation:

• List of Keys
• Hotkeys