Three Rare Windows Tips
The tips below should work in any version of Windows. Enjoy!
Taskkill
Windows borrows a feature from Linux. Taskkill allows you to terminate a running process (program) from the command line. Here’s how you use it:
Press Windows Key + R and type CMD and press Enter. The command utility window opens.
Type Tasklist at the prompt. You’ll see a list of running processes. Next to each process you’ll see a PID number. To kill any running task, type Taskkill /PID xxx (where xxx represents the PID number of the task you want to terminate). Make sure you leave a space between Taskkill and the slash. Also, leave a space between PID and the number, for example Taskkill /PID 4204
Why would you want to use this? Because you can? Or maybe your computer is frozen and you can’t access Task Manager. Or maybe just for fun?
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Edit user accounts using the command line
Click Start/Run. Type “control userpasswords2? (without the quotes) in the command line, and press Enter.
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Create a shortcut for easy access to Task Manager
You can access Task Manager by right-clicking on your taskbar and choosing Task Manager, you can user CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, or you can use the three-finger salute (CTRL+ALT+DELETE). Did you know that you can also create a shortcut to Task Manager and leave it on your desktop, drag it to your quick launch toolbar, or taskbar (Windows 7 & newer) or put in on your start menu? You can, and it’s easy to do.
Right-click on your desktop and choose “New” “Shortcut” and copy and paste the following (in bold) into the “type location of the item” field:
%windir%\system32\taskmgr.exe
Once you’re created your shortcut, you can drag its icon to your start menu, quick launch bar, taskbar (Windows 7, Windows 8.x, Windows 10) or simply leave it on your desktop. The next time you need to launch Task Manager, just click your new shortcut.
When I do the tasklist command prompt – it immediately runs through things so fast I can’t see it – then it all disappears and goes back to where I started? Why is mine not working? I have Windows 10 Home.
That’s because you skipped a step. You are pressing Windows Key + R and typing in Tasklist. You have to press Windows Key + R and type CMD and press Enter. At the prompt in the command window type Tasklist and press Enter.
Yes, thank you, that was the problem!! That’s why I asked – thanks again for posting the answer….
If your computer is frozen and you can’t access Task Manager, how do you acquire the PID?
This tip is not meant for ‘un” freezing your computer. I don’t understand what this tip has to do with task manager anyway.