Killing Ms Paint Via Cmd: A Step-By-Step Guide

If you're unable to close or kill MS Paint through conventional means, you can forcibly terminate the process using the Command Prompt (CMD) on your Windows 10 device. This can be achieved by employing the taskkill command, which allows you to end a specific application or even multiple applications simultaneously. By using the appropriate commands and process IDs, you can ensure that the MS Paint application is swiftly terminated, even if it's not responding to standard closure methods.

Using the command 'tasklist'

To kill the MS Paint application through the Command Prompt (CMD), you can use the "tasklist" command to first identify the process and then the "taskkill" command to end it. Here's how to do it:

Using the Command Tasklist:

• Open the Command Prompt by clicking the Start button, typing "Command Prompt" in the search box, and selecting "Run as administrator."
• Type "tasklist" and press Enter. This will display a list of all the processes currently running on your system, along with their Image names, Process ID (PID) numbers, and memory usage.
• Locate the PID for the MS Paint process. In the list of running processes, find the entry for MS Paint and note down its PID number. For example, the PID for MS Paint might be displayed as "mspaint.exe" with a PID of "5148."
• Now that you have the PID for MS Paint, you can use it to kill the process.

Using the Command Taskkill:

• In the Command Prompt, type the following command: "taskkill /F /PID ." Replace "" with the actual PID of the MS Paint process that you noted earlier. For example, if the PID for MS Paint is 5148, the command would be: "taskkill /F /PID 5148."
• Press Enter to execute the command. This will forcibly kill the MS Paint process. If the process is not forcibly killed, it may prompt you to save any open files or provide confirmation before closing.
• You should see a success message indicating that a termination signal has been sent to the MS Paint process.

Note: You can also use the "taskkill /IM /F" command to end a process by its image name. For MS Paint, the command would be: "taskkill /IM mspaint.exe /F."

Terminating the process with 'mspaint.exe'

If you are unable to close or kill the MS Paint application normally, you can terminate the process using the Command Prompt (CMD) on your Windows PC. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

Firstly, open the Command Prompt by searching for "cmd" in the Start menu or by pressing the Windows key + R, then typing "cmd" and pressing Enter.

Once the Command Prompt window is open, you can view all the processes running on your system by typing "tasklist" and pressing Enter. This will display a list of all the running processes, along with their Image name, Process ID (PID), and Memory usage.

To terminate the MS Paint application, you can use either its Image name or Process ID. If you want to use the Image name, make sure MS Paint has an image name of "mspaint.exe" from the list of running processes. Then, type the following command:

`taskkill /IM mspaint.exe`

Press Enter, and you should see a success message indicating that the termination signal has been sent to the MS Paint application.

Alternatively, you can use the Process ID (PID) to terminate MS Paint. For example, if the PID for MS Paint is 5260, you would type the following command:

`taskkill /PID 5260`

Press Enter, and the MS Paint application will be terminated.

Please note that terminating a process using CMD will immediately end the application without any warning, so ensure that you have saved any necessary work before proceeding.

Killing the process tree

Killing a process tree involves terminating all descendants of a process, along with the process itself. While it may sound complex, understanding the process tree or process genealogy is essential to comprehending the foundation of how our operating systems function.

In the context of Windows, MS Paint, or simply Paint, is a graphics application that was once a staple of the Windows operating system. However, Microsoft has deprecated MS Paint, indicating that development for the software has ended, and it may be removed from Windows installations in the future.

To kill the MS Paint application through the Command Prompt (CMD), you would need to identify the specific process and its associated Process ID (PID). You can use the “tasklist” command in CMD to list all running processes, including MS Paint. Once you have identified the PID of MS Paint, you can use the "taskkill" command followed by the "/PID" switch and the PID of MS Paint to terminate the process and its descendants. For example, if the PID of MS Paint is 1234, the command would be "taskkill /PID 1234".

It is important to note that killing a process and its entire process tree in one go may not always work as expected. In some cases, terminating the parent process may not automatically kill its child processes. This can result in “orphaned” processes that get reattached to the init process (PID 0). Therefore, it is recommended to first attempt to send a TERM signal to the parent process, allowing it to gracefully terminate its children. If this does not work, you may need to resort to manually collecting all the PIDs and using the "kill" command, or using tools like "htop" or "pkill" that offer features to kill a process along with its descendants.

Using the Process ID

To kill an application through the Command Prompt, you can use the process ID (PID) number. This method allows you to kill multiple applications at once.

First, open the Command Prompt by searching for "cmd" in the Start menu or the search bar. Then, type "tasklist" and press Enter to see a list of all the processes running on your system, along with their Image name, Process ID (PID) number, and Memory usage.

Find the PID number for MS Paint (mspaint.exe) in the list. For example, the PID number for MS Paint could be 5260 or 984, but it may be different on your system.

Now, to kill the MS Paint application, type the following command into the Command Prompt:

Taskkill /PID /F

Make sure to replace `` with the actual PID number for MS Paint that you found in the previous step. For example, if the PID number for MS Paint is 5260, the command would be:

Taskkill /PID 5260 /F

Press Enter to execute the command. This will force terminate the MS Paint application.

You can also kill multiple applications at once by using the PID numbers for each application. For example, to kill both MS Paint and MS Word together, use the PID numbers for each process:

Taskkill /PID /PID /F

Replace `` and `` with the actual PID numbers for each process. For example, if the PID for MS Paint is 5148 and the PID for MS Word is 2096, the command would be:

Taskkill /PID 5148 /PID 2096 /F

Press Enter to execute the command and terminate both applications.

Killing multiple applications at once

• Open the Command Prompt by searching for "cmd" in the Start menu and running it as an administrator.
• Once the Command Prompt window is open, type "tasklist" and press Enter. This will display a list of all the running processes on your system, including their image name and Process ID (PID).
• Identify the processes you want to terminate. For example, if you want to kill MS Paint and MS Word together, locate their respective PID numbers.
• To kill multiple processes simultaneously, use their PID numbers. Type "taskkill /PID XXXX /PID YYYY" (replacing XXXX and YYYY with the actual PID numbers of the processes you want to terminate) and press Enter. For instance, if you want to kill MS Paint (PID 5148) and MS Word (PID 2096), you would type "taskkill /PID 5148 /PID 2096" and press Enter.
• You can also use the "taskkill" command with the /IM switch followed by the image name of the processes. For example, to kill MS Paint and MS Word, you would type "taskkill /IM mspaint.exe /IM winword.exe" and press Enter.
• Alternatively, you can use PowerShell to kill multiple processes. Open PowerShell with administrative privileges and use the "Kill" command followed by the process name. For example, "Kill -name slack" will terminate all Slack processes.
• If you prefer a graphical interface, you can use Task Manager or Process Explorer to terminate multiple processes. Open Task Manager, find the process you want to kill, right-click on it, and select "End Task." To kill multiple instances of the same process, use Process Explorer to find the parent process and terminate it, which will also kill all its spawned children.

Remember to exercise caution when terminating processes, as ending critical system processes can cause instability or other unexpected issues. Always ensure you have saved your work and closed any important applications before proceeding.

Frequently asked questions