While there’s no definitive reason why this happens, an app is believed to throw such an occur when it receives more requests than it can process at a time. Fortunately, there are different ways to force quit on Windows that allow you to close unresponsive programs on your PC. Here’s a guide detailing all the different ways to force quit Windows apps.
Before Force Quitting the Unresponsive App
If hitting the close (X) button isn’t closing the frozen application, you can try quitting it using the Alt + F4 shortcut. It’s essentially the same as closing the app via the close button, except that it’s effective in situations when the unresponsive app freezes your mouse. To use this shortcut, make sure it’s the frozen app that’s active on the desktop and press Alt + F4. In some cases, this should close the app but if it doesn’t help, try force-closing programs using the following methods.
1. Force Quit Windows Apps Using Task Manager
Using the Task Manager is one of the most common ways of force-quitting programs in Window. It’s a powerful tool that helps you monitor your system, manage startup programs, and end tasks, among other things. Follow these steps to force close a Windows program using Task Manager:
2. Force Quit Windows Apps Using Command Prompt
Although the Task Manager method can force close frozen programs on your Windows PC most of the time, in case even it gets frozen, you can use the Command Prompt to force quit a Windows app. Here are the steps to force quit on Windows using Command Prompt: A SUCCESS confirmation message should appear in the CMD window, letting you know that the unresponsive app is now closed. Alternatively, if an ERROR message is returned instead, make sure to type/paste the command correctly.
3. Force Quit Windows Apps Using PowerShell
Just like the Command Prompt, PowerShell is another CLI-based program that lets you perform various system operations in Windows. So if you prefer using PowerShell over CMD for all your CLI-related tasks, you can use it to force close programs in Windows as well: Below are the steps to force quit an application using PowerShell:
4. Force Quit Unresponsive Windows Programs Using a Shortcut
All of the above methods require you to go through a series of steps to force quit an unresponsive Windows program on your computer. However, if you’re already finding these a tedious exercise, there’s an alternative way to force quit on Windows more efficiently. For this, all you need is a shortcut, which runs a CMD command that helps it identify the unresponsive program and force close it, all by itself. Use these steps to create the shortcut: Once you’ve created the shortcut, the next time an app freezes and throws a Not Responding error, double-click this shortcut to force quit the app.
Reinstate the Frozen App Back to Normal
No matter whether you’re using Windows 10 or Windows 11, it can sometimes present you with a scenario where an app stops responding and throws the Not Responding error out of nowhere. When this happens, your best bet is to force quit the frozen app and reinstate it back to normal. This guide should make it easier for you to perform this on your PC. However, if none of these methods quit the app, you may want to shut down your PC using the power button. Of course, it goes without saying that if you keep experiencing this issue with an app repeatedly, you need to find and fix the underlying problem that’s causing it to freeze in the first place. Follow the steps in the guide above to use any of these methods. However, if an app is frozen, there are very slim chances that using this keyboard shortcut would unfreeze the app or force close it. In which case, you must try other methods to force close the frozen app. Refer to the guide above to learn about other methods of ending tasks in Windows.
