Stop-Process: find and stop a process in PowerShell

Syntax

Stop-Process picks a process by ID, by name or from a process object¹. These are the two forms you will use most.

Stop-Process [-Id] <Int32[]> [-PassThru] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]
Stop-Process -Name <String[]> [-PassThru] [-Force] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm]

• -Id is one or more process IDs, separated by commas. To find a PID, run Get-Process¹.
• -Name is one or more process names, separated by commas. Wildcards are allowed¹.
• -WhatIf shows what would happen if the cmdlet runs. The cmdlet is not run¹.
• -Confirm asks you before the cmdlet runs¹.
• -Force stops the process without asking. Without it, Stop-Process asks before it stops a process that the current user doesn't own¹.
• -PassThru returns an object for the stopped process. By default, Stop-Process returns no output¹.

Examples

Find the process first

Get-Process gets the processes on the local computer. You can name a process with -Name or pick one by PID with -Id².

Get-Process -Name notepad

Its default table includes the columns NPM(K), PM(M), WS(M), CPU(s), Id, SI and ProcessName. The Id column is the PID².

Preview the stop with -WhatIf

Run the command with -WhatIf first. The cmdlet does not run¹. PowerShell lists the operation and the items it would affect instead³.

Stop-Process -Name "notepad" -WhatIf

Stop every instance by name

This stops all instances of the Notepad process. Each instance runs in its own process, and they all share the same name¹.

Stop-Process -Name "notepad"

It returns nothing by default¹.

Stop one instance by ID and confirm it

This stops only the process with ID 3952. -Confirm makes PowerShell ask before it stops the process, and -PassThru shows the stopped process¹.

Stop-Process -Id 3952 -Confirm -PassThru

Microsoft shows this output¹:

Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Performing operation "Stop-Process" on Target "notepad (3952)".
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help
(default is "Y"):y
Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K) VM(M)   CPU(s)     Id ProcessName
-------  ------    -----      ----- -----   ------     -- -----------
41       2      996       3212    31            3952 notepad

Microsoft calls this best practice, because the prompt shows the process name as well as its ID¹.

Pipe a process from Get-Process

You can pipe a process object to Stop-Process¹. This lets you check the process with Get-Process, then stop the same one.

Get-Process -Name "notepad" | Stop-Process

It returns nothing by default¹.

Stop a process you don't own

This needs a PowerShell window opened with Run as administrator¹. Without -Force, PowerShell asks you to confirm. With -Force, the process stops without a prompt¹.

Stop-Process -Id 3952 -Force

Be careful here. Stopping a process can stop processes and services that depend on it. In an extreme case, it can stop Windows¹.

Common errors

Access is denied. Microsoft shows this message when a standard window tries to stop a process the user doesn't own¹:

Stop-Process : Cannot stop process 'lsass (596)' because of the following error: Access is denied

In that example, the process can be stopped only by a member of the Administrator group on the computer. Open PowerShell with Run as administrator and try again¹.

Too many windows closed. -Name stops every instance with that name¹. To stop just one, find its PID with Get-Process and use -Id^1,2.

The process still shows up. Stop-Process runs asynchronously. Wait with the Wait-Process cmdlet, or check the HasExited property of the process object¹.

Get-Process output won't pipe to Stop-Process. With -Module or -FileVersionInfo, Get-Process returns a different type of object. You can't pipe that output to a cmdlet that expects a process object, such as Stop-Process².

You need to stop another PowerShell window, not this one. Several PowerShell processes can share one name. The $PID variable holds the ID of the process that hosts your current session, so you can tell it apart from the others².

Questions

Is there a kill command in PowerShell?

Yes. On Windows, kill is an alias for Stop-Process. The alias spps works on all platforms¹.

How do I find the PID of a process?

Run Get-Process. The Id column shows the process ID (PID) of each process². To see who owns a process, add -IncludeUserName².

Can Stop-Process stop a process on another computer?

No. Stop-Process works only on processes running on the local computer¹.

Do I need administrator rights to stop a process?

Only for a process that the current user doesn't own. For those, start PowerShell with the Run as administrator option¹.

14 Sept 2026: Published.