PsKill

Introduction

Windows NT/2000 does not come with a command-line 'kill' utility. You can get one in the Windows NT or Win2K Resource Kit, but the kit's utility can only terminate processes on the local computer. PsKill is a kill utility that not only does what the Resource Kit's version does, but can also kill processes on remote systems. You don't even have to install a client on the target computer to use PsKill to terminate a remote process.

Installation

Just copy PsKill onto your executable path, and type pskill with command-line options defined below.

PsKill works on NT 4 and higher.

Usage

See the September 2004 issue of Windows IT Pro Magazine for Mark's article that covers advanced usage of PsKill.

Running PsKill with a process ID directs it to kill the process of that ID on the local computer. If you specify a process name PsKill will kill all processes that have that name.

usage: pskill [-?] [-t] [\\computer [-u username] [-p password]] <process name | process id>

-?: Displays the supported options.
-t: Kill the process and its descendants.
\\computer: Specifies the computer on which the process you want to terminate is executing. The remote computer must be accessible via the NT network neighborhood.
-u username: If you want to kill a process on a remote system and the account you are executing in does not have administrative privileges on the remote system then you must login as an administrator using this command-line option. If you do not include the password with the -p option then PsKill will prompt you for the password without echoing your input to the display.
-p password: This option lets you specify the login password on the command line so that you can use PsList from batch files. If you specify an account name and omit the -p option PsList prompts you interactively for a password.
process id: Specifies the process ID of the process you want to kill.
process name: Specifies the process name of the process or processes you want to kill.

PsKill Microsoft KB Article

This Microsoft KB article references PsKill:

810596: PSVR2002: "There Is No Information to Display in This View" Error Message When You Try to Access a Project View

PsTools

PsKill is part of a growing kit of Sysinternals command-line tools that aid in the adminstration of local and remote Windows NT/2K systems named PsTools.

Download PsKill (42 KB)

Download PsTools