December 31, 2022

How to Fix or Bypass the ‘Unable to Terminate Process’ Error on Windows

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Here’s how to get the ‘unable to terminate process’ error fixed on Windows… or bypass it altogether.

Task Manager is a handy system utility for terminating unwanted apps and processes on Windows. Although it usually works as expected, there are times when Task Manager malfunctions and displays the ‘unable to terminate process’ error on Windows.

If you’re unable to terminate apps or processes due to this error, here are some ways you can either fix the error message or bypass it using a different method outside of Windows’ Task Manager.

1. Use the Alt + F4 Keyboard Shortcut

At times, temporary glitches with an app or program can trigger the ‘unable to terminate process’ error on Windows. If it’s nothing major, you should be able to close the unresponsive program with the Alt + F4 keyboard shortcut. Switch to the app or program you want to close and press Alt + F4 together on your keyboard to close it.

Check out how to force close a program without the Task Manager for more ways to close an app without using this tool.

2. Open Task Manager as an Administrator

Not running Task Manager as an administrator could prevent you from terminating certain system processes. If that’s the case, use the following steps to open Task Manager with elevated rights and then try to terminate the process again.

1. Click the magnifying icon on the taskbar to open the search menu.
2. Type Task Manager in the box and select Run as administrator.
3. When the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears, select Yes to continue.
4. Right-click on the process you want to terminate and select End task from the context menu.

3. Use the Taskkill Command to Terminate the Process

Using the Task Manager isn’t the only way to terminate processes on Windows. If you’re comfortable using Command Prompt, you can run the ‘taskkill’ command to easily stop an unwanted process on Windows.

In order to terminate a process with the taskkill command, you’ll need to know the exact name of the process. To find out, switch to the Details tab in the Task Manager window and locate the process you want to kill. Note down its name from the first column.

Once you have the name of the process, use the following steps to terminate it.

1. Press Win + S to open the search menu.
2. Type Command Prompt in the box and select Run as administrator.
3. Select Yes when the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears.
4. Type the following command and press Enter to terminate the process. Make sure you replace ProcessName in the following command with the actual name of the process noted earlier.

    taskkill /IM 'ProcessName' /T /F 

Once you run the above command, you should see a confirmation message indicating that the process was terminated successfully.

4. Terminate the Process With WMIC

WMIC (or Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) is another powerful tool for terminating processes on Windows. Again, you’ll need to know the exact name of the process you want to kill. Once you have that, use the following steps to terminate the process with WMIC.

1. Use any of your preferred methods to open Command Prompt with administrative privileges.
2. Paste the following command in the console, replace ProcessName with the actual name of the process you want to terminate, and press Enter.

    wmic process where name='processname.exe' delete 

5. Use a Task Manager Alternative

Finally, if none of the solutions help with the ‘unable to terminate process’ error, you can consider using a Task Manager alternative on Windows. If you’re looking for something with more power, Process Explorer is a solid choice.

1. Download Process Explorer on your computer.
2. Double-click the procexp64.exe to open Process Explorer.
3. Locate the process you want to terminate. Right-click on it and select Kill Process from the resulting menu.

Your Tasks, Terminated Successfully

By applying the fixes in the article, you should be able to fix the ‘unable to terminate process’ error on Windows. However, be cautious when terminating processes via Task Manager, as some may cause your system to freeze or crash if terminated.

Reference: https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-unable-terminate-process-error/

Ref: makeuseof

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