What to do with the hung program in Windows

Understand what to do if the program does not respond or constantly slows down. Absolutely any application or window can hang. And when you try to close it, it will not work. It will not respond to keyboard shortcuts or clicks. But do not rush to restart the computer or pull out the plug from the outlet. This should be done in the most extreme case - when other methods have not helped. You can shut down a separate utility without turning off the PC.

Why do programs hang?

If you regularly hang programs, it makes sense to think about the cause of these failures. To eliminate it in time. This can happen when:

  • The utility for stable operation needs more RAM;
  • You have started too many processes at the same time (including background processes). As a result, they lack resources;
  • The presence of viruses. It doesn't matter how you close the application that is not responding. If this problem is a frequent occurrence, it is necessary to scan the system with a good antivirus;
  • Incompatibility, conflict programs. The utility is not designed to run on your version of Windows. Or there are inappropriate drivers;
  • Too much installed. Do not “clutter up” the system. Either clean it or optimize it;
  • The program being run contains errors;
  • Hardware malfunctions. This is usually a damaged hard disk or degraded RAM cards.

The program may hang tightly due to various factors. Not only because of those described above. To close the window, it is not necessary to find out the reasons for the failure. But if the problem begins to “bother”, it is better to understand why it appeared. This will help you understand what to do next, and how to get rid of the brakes.

How to check what is hanging?

It is not always clear what is hanging: one program or the whole system. In the first case, you can close the inaccessible window. In the second - will have to restart the computer.

If the utility does not respond, but the mouse cursor moves, then the OS is running. Disconnected only one process. When the cursor is frozen along with it, the system is frozen. And no other programs can be opened. Close - too.

But what to do if the full-screen application is running? Game, film or multimedia. In such utilities, the cursor is usually hidden. But you can determine what is hanging.

The Caps Look, Scroll Lock and Num Lock buttons should have light indicators on the keyboard. Click on one of the keys and see if the “light bulb” lights up: turned on - the system is running, did not turn on - you need to restart.

Indicator light on the CAPS LOCK key

How to close the hung program?

In most cases, these are minor “brakes”. Wait a while and the utility will continue to work. Do not randomly click on the program working area in the hope that it will drop. Also, do not re-run the "pledged" application. Or open other windows.

In Windows version 7 and above, in general, do not need to do anything extra. When the utility freezes, a dialog box appears asking you to close the non-responding object. You can also exit the program by pressing Alt + F4.

If all else fails, launch Task Manager:

  • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc or Ctrl + Alt + Del;
  • You can also right-click on the taskbar (where the "Start") and select the Manager in the pop-up menu that appears. But there is a risk that when you click everything will freeze completely;

In the menu, select Task Manager

  • In the window that opens, go to the "Applications" tab;
  • Find a program that does not work. Next to her will be written "Not responding";
  • Click the "Clear Task" button;
  • Confirm the action.

This method has a flaw. If there were any unsaved data in the program, it will not be possible to recover it. For example, when a Word document hangs with printed text. In order not to lose important information, activate the autosave feature.

The closed application can remain in processes. He will still be allocated resources. And you will not be able to restart it. What to do in this case?

  • In the Task Manager, go to the "Processes" section;
  • Find the item you want. Usually the process name is the same as the name of the utility executable;
  • To find it faster, click on the category of CPU. Background programs line up the degree of CPU utilization. The highest percentage is for hung applications;
  • Do not touch the system processes (in the "User" column it says "System");
  • Highlight the desired item and click Finish.

Click on "Remove the task"

The program is still hanging, what to do?

  • Right-click on the process in the Task Manager and click "End Process Tree";
  • Go to Start - Programs - Standard. Run a command prompt as administrator. Enter the command “taskkill / f / im process.exe / t”, where “process.exe” is the name of the process.

Automation

You can create a “shortcut” that will automatically close all hung programs. This should be done like this:

  • Right-click on any empty space on the desktop (where there are no other shortcuts, files or controls);
  • Item "Create";
  • Sub-item "Label";
  • In the “Object location” input box, copy the taskkill.exe / f / fi command “status eq not responding”. Last words leave in quotes;

Team taskkill.exe / f / fi "status eq not responding"

  • Click "Next";
  • Make a name for the label. It can be any (for example, "Click here so that everything hangs"). But it should not contain characters that are forbidden to be used in Windows file names: a question mark “?”, Slashes “\” and “/”, asterisks “*”, and so on;
  • Click "Finish".

If several programs freeze, open this shortcut. You can assign him a shortcut:

  1. Click on it with the right mouse button;
  2. Select "Properties";
  3. Tab "label";
  4. In the "Quick call" field, specify the keyboard combination. It should not coincide with those keys that are already reserved in the system;
  5. Save the changes.

Specify keyboard shortcut

Do not exit this menu. There is another setting that may come in handy:

  1. Click the "Advanced" button;
  2. Check the box "On behalf of the administrator";
  3. Save the changes again.

So you will not need to confirm the closure of some applications.

Now you figure out how to close the hung program. To do this, do not even need to restart the computer. However, you will lose all unsaved data that was in the utility.