Use KillProcess utility to close or terminate hung and run-away processes.

KillProcess is a command line utility that can be used to terminate running processes. Best of all KillProcess attempts to close processes gratefully before terminating them forcibly. KillProcess can kill multiple instances of the same process.

Download KillProcess.exe (16 KB).

Here is the help screen containing complete description and examples

Usage: KillProcess [/T timeout] process

Command line parameters:

/T	Try to close the process before killing it. The timeout parameter controls how long you want to wait for the process to exit before forcibly terminating it. Specify timeout value in seconds. If /T switch is not specified the default timeout 1 second is used.
process	Name of the process to terminate. Enter name as it appears in the Image Name column on the Windows Task Manager's Processes tab page. For example to terminate all instances of Notepad run KillProcess notepad.exe.

Run KillProcess.exe without parameters from the DOS command prompt to see full description of the supported parameters.