Different Ways to Force Close Programs on Windows 11 – How To

Sometimes, a program can stop working while you are still working on it, and it refuses to close when you click on the small cross button (close icon) at the top right corner of the window. If this happens, there are alternatives that you can try to force close a program on Windows 11 systems. I will walk you through these methods in this tutorial, and you can pick whichever you like.

Force Close Program on Windows 11

There are three methods that you can try to fix this issue. Just try out the methods below and pick whichever is most convenient for you:

Shortcut

This is the shortest method and will work most of the time:
Alt + F4
As long as the program is active and not minimized, you can use this shortcut to kill the program. Sometimes, windows might take a little longer to finalize the command, so give it a few seconds after pressing these keys.

Force Close Programs on Windows – Task Manager

Sometimes, the shortcut doesn’t work properly, especially there is some big error. You can force close the program using the Task Manager in such cases. Just follow the steps below:

Step-1: Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open Task Manager.

Step-2: Make sure you are in the Processes tab and look for the program you wish to close.

Step-3: Click on the program and select End Task. (Alternatively, you can also right-click on the program and select End Task.)

Command Prompt

Click on the search icon and type cmd.
Now select Run as administrator.
You will be asked, do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device? Select Yes.
Type the following command and press Enter:
tasklist
Locate the program you wish to close, scroll right down to the bottom, enter the following command, and press Enter.
taskkill /im ProgramName.exe /t /f
Replace ProgramName with the actual name of the program. Make sure the name is as seen in the command prompt list.