Task Manager how to End task with keyboard

This is the key combination to end a program. The only reason it doesn't work as advertised is ignorant programmers who refuse to follow Microsoft design guidelines.

This problem would persist with any other hotkey as well. You could only possibly create a custom solution with AutoHotKey (or similar tools) that kills the process. But this would most likely make you lose a lot of work. As that is quite the brute force method to exit a process.

I want to know more!

OK, to my understanding, there are several ways a Windows application can be terminated.

The first way is the clean way. The way you're intended to close an application. This is the same thing that Alt+F4 works. Pressing Alt+F4 will just send the WM_CLOSE message to the application window.

Now, let's look at all 3 ways in reverse order.

Terminating a process

In Windows, an application lives in a process. Inside that process, the application may create a window. The window is what you will see on your desktop and what you will interact with.

So, if the process is the root of an application, if you terminate it, everything else will go away as well. So this would be great to fully end an application. But this will kill the application so abruptly, that it will have no chance to save any critical data to disk.

So this would not be recommended!

Destroying the main application window

As we just learned, the main application window is just part of the process. So if we just destroy that window, we'll still have the process stinking up the place :(

And that would be even harder to get rid off than the application would have been.

This is most likely the nastiest approach to trying to end an application. Stay far away!

Posting a WM_CLOSE message

Windows is a message-based operating system. Meaning, components talk to each other by sending each other little messages.

One of these messages is the WM_CLOSE message.
If an application receives this message, it is agreed upon, that this application should seize all action and then life.

But every programmer can decide on his or her own how to handle the message.

As the documentation told us earlier, the default behavior would be to call DestroyWindow and, thus perform our application exit approach #2.
With the little difference that, this time, it's intentional and the program has every chance to save critical data.

Conclusion

So, as you can see, we're pretty much at the mercy of every programmer here. Or we take the risk of losing data (you don't want to take that risk!).

It can be frustrating when you have an application that won’t respond. But manually turning off your computer by hitting the power button can damage your computer. Instead of waiting for the application to respond, here’s how to force quit applications on a Windows 10 PC in three ways.

How to Force Quit on a Windows 10 PC Using Keyboard Shortcuts

1. Click on the frozen application. You have to select the application, so your computer knows that that’s the one you’re trying to close.
2. Next, press the Alt + F4 keys at the same time. The F4 key is at the top of your keyboard, while the Alt key is to the left of most keyboards.

If you don’t select a window or application, this shortcut may cause your computer to shut down. 

If this keyboard shortcut doesn’t work on your Windows 10 PC, or your laptop doesn’t have F (function) keys, you can use Task Manager instead.

How to Force Quit on a Windows 10 PC Using Windows Task Manager

1. Press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys at the same time. This brings up a screen that says, “Preparing security settings” before you see a short list of tasks.
   
   

   Note: The “delete” key is not the same as the “backspace” key. If you don’t have a delete key, try pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager window.

2. Then select Task Manager from the list. This is the last option on the list.
   
   
   
   
3. Click on the application you want to force quit. If you don’t see your application in the list, make sure to hit the More details button in the bottom-left corner of the window.
4. Click End task to close the program.

How to Force Quit an Application using Command Prompt

1. Click the Windows key + R on your keyboard at the same time. The Windows key is the one with the Windows logo to the left of your space bar.
   
   
2. Then type “cmd” in the search box and hit enter on your keyboard. If this doesn’t work for you, check out our guide on how to open Command Prompt for other methods.
   
   
3. Type “tasklist” into Command Prompt. This brings up all the tasks and programs running on your machine, including the problematic one.
4. Finally, type “taskkill/im {name_of_program}.exe.” Replace {name_of_program} with the name of the program you want to force quit. Remember to leave a space between “taskkill/im” and the name of the program.
5. Finally, hit enter on your keyboard.

For example, if you want to force quit Microsoft Word, you would type “taskkill/im word.exe” and hit enter. Command Prompt will send a confirmation message that the task kill was successful. 

If you are using these shortcuts to force quit applications frequently, it may be time for you to run a health check on your PC. Check out our guide on how to remove malware from your Windows 10 PC here.

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