Access Denied when trying to kill stuck processes

Hello!

It doesn't happen often, but occassionaly File Explorer will be very slow and it might eventually get stuck. After a first attempt to End Task from Task Manager fails, then it locks and any other attempt fails with an "Access denied" message. Any other application that attempts to access files, such using an "Open file" or "Save as" dialog will also get stuck with the same symptoms, "Access Denied" when trying to End Task from Task Manager. Since that only happens rarely, it is not important to find out why it happens, I just want to know if there is any way to force the application to quit and terminate. I have added the "kill unresponding tasks" to File Explorer context menu with Winareo Tweaker. When I do that it opens a command prompt and executes the relevant code to kill all stuck applications, but this also fails with the "Access Denied" error. Any other workaround? If I let the computer finish whatever it is doing and stays idle for very long, it might eventually kill the stuck processes, but most of the times I have to force a reset from the button. Is there any utility or command prompt code that can immediately force all stuck applications to quit and terminate irrespectively of the access rights?

Thanks in advance.

Try Process Explorer, make sure to open Process Explorer with Admin rights.

Thanks I will try it.

Good luck!

If that doesn't work then you can always try PsKill.

Thanks. I have Microsoft Edge open and I can browse to the tools you suggested, but I cannot download anything now since my computer is stuck. I can't restart either because it is busy rendering some video. I will just have to wait to finish before doing anything. Thanks for your replies though.

You should not need any tools. Create a shortcut with target C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c taskkill /im explorer.exe /f & start explorer.exe
Name it Kill Explorer (or whatever) Right click on the shortcut.
select properties
general tab-advanced-check run as administrator
shortcut tab- change the shortcut icon to one of your choosing
Apply-OK
You can pin this icon to taskbar or start menu.

I am not sure but I think the "kill not responding processes" I have added to context menu does the same and fails with the "access denied" error. I will try next time, now I reset my computer back in the desktop fully functional. Thanks.

You can get that error message if you're trying to terminate a process which already in the process of being terminating.

After a process has terminated, call to TerminateProcess with open handles to the process fails with ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED (5) error code.

Click to expand...

Here's why it may have hung:

The terminated process cannot exit until all pending I/O has been completed or canceled. When a process terminates, its kernel object is not destroyed until all processes that have open handles to the process have released those handles.

Click to expand...

Source: TerminateProcess function (processthreadsapi.h) - Win32 apps

glasskuter said:

You should not need any tools.

Click to expand...

Agreed, most of the time taskkill should be sufficient unless you don't have sufficient access rights.

What if a task is in the process of being terminated but never quits for some reason? Isn't there a way to tell it "stop whatever you are doing and quit now", much like when shutting down the computer where you force quit.

You'll need to investigate why that is the case, for example if another process is holding a handle to your terminating process, then you'll need to terminate that process first.