A fast, feature-rich killall command for Windows 11, written in C++.
Kill processes by name, pattern, port, DLL, window title, CPU/RAM usage, and more.
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Pattern matching | Exact, substring, glob (*/?), regex (/pattern/) |
| Process tree | Kill a process and all its children with --tree |
| Port targeting | Kill whatever is holding a port or port range |
| DLL/module matching | Kill processes that have a specific DLL loaded |
| Window title | Kill by visible window title |
| CPU hog | Sample and kill processes exceeding a CPU threshold |
| RAM hog | Kill processes over a memory limit |
| Hung apps | Detect and kill frozen/unresponsive windows |
| LLM/AI killer | Kills Ollama, LM Studio, Fooocus, KoboldCPP, etc. |
| Game killer | Kills Steam, Epic, Xbox, Ubisoft Connect, and running games |
| Restart | Kill and relaunch a process |
| Self-protection | Never kills itself |
| Colour output | ANSI colour with dry-run safety net |
Download killall.exe from Releases, drop it anywhere in your PATH, done.
Or build from source — see Building.
killall <pattern> [options]
killall <subcommand> [options]
| Syntax | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|
notepad |
Substring (case-insensitive) | matches notepad.exe |
note* |
Glob wildcard | matches notepad.exe, notepadpp.exe |
/^steam/ |
Regex | matches processes starting with steam |
-t, --tree Kill process and all its children
-f, --force Skip confirmation prompt
-n, --dry-run Show what would be killed without killing
--cmdline <pat> Match command-line substring or /regex/
--module <dll> Match processes with a specific DLL loaded
--port <N|A-B> Match processes using a TCP/UDP port or range
--window <title> Match by visible window title (substring or /regex/)
--parent <pid|name> Match children of a specific parent process
--top <N> Limit ramhog/cpuhog to top N offenders
--sample <N> CPU sampling duration in seconds (default: 2)
-h, --help Show help
hung Kill hung/frozen applications
networkapps Kill all processes with network connections
ramhog <MB> Kill processes using more than N MB of RAM
cpuhog <percent> Kill processes using more than N% CPU (per core)
gpu [--threshold N] Kill processes using the GPU
llm Kill local AI/LLM processes
game Kill games, launchers, and gaming services
restart <name> Kill a process then relaunch it
:: Kill all Notepad windows killall notepad :: Kill Chrome and every child process it spawned killall chrome --tree :: See what's on port 8080 before killing it killall --port 8080 --dry-run killall --port 8080 --force :: Kill anything holding a port range killall --port 3000-3010 --force :: Kill by command-line content (useful for Python scripts) killall --cmdline fooocus --force killall --cmdline /server\.py$/ --force :: Kill processes with a specific DLL loaded killall --module msedge.dll --dry-run :: Kill by window title killall --window "Untitled" --force :: Kill all children of a process killall --parent explorer --dry-run :: Kill the top 3 RAM hogs over 500 MB killall ramhog 500 --top 3 --dry-run :: Kill CPU hogs over 80% (per core), sampling for 3 seconds killall cpuhog 80 --sample 3 --top 5 :: Kill all local LLMs (Ollama, LM Studio, KoboldCPP, Fooocus, etc.) killall llm --force :: Kill all games and launchers (Steam, Epic, Xbox, Ubisoft, etc.) killall game --force :: Kill and restart a process killall restart explorer :: Kill hung/frozen applications killall hung --force
killall llm detects AI processes by:
- Process name:
ollama,lm studio,koboldcpp,jan,gpt4all,oobabooga,localai,vllm,whisper, and more - Command line:
.gguf,.ggml,.safetensors,.ckptmodel files - Command line:
fooocus,comfyui,webui.py,stable-diffusion,invokeai,kohya, and others
killall game detects games by:
- Process name:
steam,epicgameslauncher,xboxpcapp,upc,galaxyclient,blizzard,eadesktop,riotclientservices,minecraft, and more - Loaded DLLs:
steam_api64.dll,unityplayer.dll,easyanticheat.dll,nvngx_dlss.dll,bink2w64.dll, and others
- Windows 10/11
- Visual Studio 2022 with Desktop development with C++ workload (or just the free Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022)
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/killall-windows
cd killall-windows
build.bat:: Run as Administrator for system-wide install (System32) :: Or run as normal user for per-user install (~\AppData\Local\Programs\killall) install.bat
| Feature | Windows API Used |
|---|---|
| Process enumeration | CreateToolhelp32Snapshot |
| Process termination | TerminateProcess |
| Process tree | PROCESSENTRY32.th32ParentProcessID traversal |
| Command line | WMI Win32_Process.CommandLine |
| Loaded modules | CreateToolhelp32Snapshot (TH32CS_SNAPMODULE) |
| Network ports | GetExtendedTcpTable / GetExtendedUdpTable (IPv4 + IPv6 + UDP) |
| Window title | EnumWindows + GetWindowText |
| Hung detection | SendMessageTimeout(WM_NULL, 2000ms) |
| Memory usage | GetProcessMemoryInfo |
| CPU usage | Two-snapshot GetProcessTimes delta |
| GPU detection | Checking for D3D/DXGI/Vulkan/CUDA DLL presence |
| Process restart | QueryFullProcessImageNameW + ShellExecuteA |
- Processes running as SYSTEM (e.g.
gamingservices.exe,steamservice.exe) require running killall as Administrator to terminate killallnever kills its own process (self-protection built in)- All pattern matching is case-insensitive
cpuhogreports per-core CPU percentage (same as Task Manager per-process view)
MIT