Microsoft DOS taskkill command

Quick links

About taskkill
Availability
Syntax
Examples

About taskkill

Allows a user running Microsoft Windows XP professional or Windows 2003 to kill a task from a MS-DOS prompt.

TipWindows XP home edition do not have access to this command. Use the command tskill instead.

Availability

The taskkill command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft operating systems.

Windows XP Professional
Windows Vista
Windows 7

Syntax

taskkill [/s Computer] [/u Domain\User [/p Password]]] [/fi FilterName] [/pid ProcessID]|[/im ImageName] [/f][/t]

/s computerSpecifies the name or IP address of a remote computer (do not use backslashes). The default is the local computer.
/u domain\userRuns the command with the account permissions of the user specified by User or Domain\User. The default is the permissions of the current logged on user on the computer issuing the command.
/p passwordSpecifies the password of the user account that is specified in the /u parameter.
/fi FilterNameSpecifies the types of process(es) to include in or exclude from termination. The following are valid filter names, operators, and values.
NameOperatorsValue
Hostnameeq, neAny valid string.
Statuseq, neRUNNING|NOT RESPONDING
Imagenameeq, neAny valid string.
PIDeq, ne, gt, lt, ge, leAny valid positive integer.
Sessioneq, ne, gt, lt, ge, leAny valid session number.
CPUTimeeq, ne, gt, lt, ge, leValid time in the format of hh:mm:ss. The mm and ss parameters should be between 0 and 59 and hh can be any valid unsigned numeric value.
Memusageeq, ne, gt, lt, ge, leAny valid integer.
Usernameeq, neAny valid user name ([Domain\]User).
Serviceseq, neAny valid string.
Windowtitleeq, neAny valid string.
/pid processIDSpecifies the process ID of the process to be terminated.
/im ImageNameSpecifies the image name of the process to be terminated. Use the wildcard (*) to specify all image names.
/fSpecifies that process(es) be forcefully terminated. This parameter is ignored for remote processes; all remote processes are forcefully terminated.
/tSpecifies to terminate all child processes along with the parent process, commonly known as a tree kill.

Tip See the operator definition for full information about operators and eq, ge, gt, le, lt, and ne.

Examples

Tip If you need to see a listing of all running tasks use the tasklist command.

taskkill /f /im notepad.exe

Kills the open notepad task, if open.

taskill /pid 9764

Kill the task with PID 9764. If successful should give you a message similar to the below example.

SUCCESS: Sent termination signal to the process with PID 9764.