Vista - Vista Can't End Process

Hi guys,

I'm sure other people have come across this problem before, although I
haven't been able to find any information on how to overcome this
problem.

When a third party software decides to 'stop responding' and I choose
to "Close program", the application's window is closed, but the
process is still running. If I select the persistent process and click
the "End Process" button, the precess does not end; and there is no
way I can force-close the process - except to restart the computer.

I am currently using Vista Ultimate, and I'm the Administrator. I've
also tried to end the process by command line (taskkill), but the
process is still there. I know certain system processes can't be
ended, but I'm not referring to those processes, I'm simply referring
to processes of third-party software (e.g. Firefox, WMPlayer,
PowerDVD, etc...)

Here's the strange thing: generally I can end any process through Task
Manager, until the program decides to stop responding, that's when I
am unable to end it's process. Bizarre!!
I might also add that when I'm unable to end a process, and I'm force
to restart or shutdown my computer, my computer can take up 30min+ to
restart/shutdown, when normally it would restart/shutdown in seconds.

I know it's a rather long post, but I'm trying to include as much
information as possible so we don't go over the same questions again.

Does anyone know of any way to overcome this problem? Or is there
really a way to force end/kill a persistent process?

Cheers,
Shawn

Hello Shawn,

I've seen your same post here on several sites now but I've yet to see a response. I too have been having the same problems with not being able to end processes in task manager. I'm running Vista Home Premium 32bit. I am sure we can't be the only two people out there with this problem but I'm amazed that I haven't seen more questions about it and frustrated that there doesn't seem to be any answers. Have you found any yourself, or managed to figure it out yet??

Or anyone else reading this? Any help would be much appreciated.

All the best,

James

I am also having this problem with one of my apps (Roxio Media Manager). I find it totally amazing that in this day and age that an OS can't properly kill a process.

If anyone has a solution to this issue, please let us know!

Open regedit
edit this value WaitToKillServiceTimeout
in this registry value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control
lower the value
thanks.
see if this helps

On Feb 20, 12:43 am, vectorman <vectorman.352...@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net>
wrote:I am having the same problem with iTunes and EditPlus. I cannot stop
the process through Task Manager. I reset the
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout" from 20000
to 10000. Do you know if a reboot is required to get the registry
values changed?

Thanks!

I'm also having the same problem. Is there really no way to actually end a
process. So far I have had it happen with firefox and utorrent. the worst
part is that I can't even log off or shut down because windows can't end it.
Any help would be very much appreciated!

A system restore to before it started happening might help
Firefox kept closing down on me and when i did a system restore it worked fine again.

do you see this image when you try to click the X box again after telling it to end task?



I am so sick of this error.