Task manager - Can't end processes (Access Denied)

Anonymous
2012-12-20T23:54:33+00:00

Recently I've been having problems ending processes. Whenever I try to end a certain processes I keep getting an access denied error and I have no other way of removing processes as it wont go away even if I turn off my computer. This is pretty weird considering what I'm trying to end is game processes. So now I can't play certain games as I keep getting "Program is already opened" errors when I try to play them and there's no way I can play them. Some of the games that still play even without me having to kill the task completely now have multiple copies of the process and I can't end any of them.

I've tried messing with the permissions on the files and it didn't work, I also tried messing with the admin rights and such but no luck. My account is an admin

Can anyone help me out?

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Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2012-12-21T16:00:50+00:00

Hi HyperXII,

Thank you for posting this question in Microsoft Community Forums!!

I see that you aren’t able to end tasks in Task Manager.

I will certainly guide you in the right direction to get the issue fixed.

But before we continue to the resolution, could you give us more information?

1.     Do all the game processes point to a single task?

Here’s what you can try:

Method 1: Perform Safe Mode and Clean Boot.

Step 1: Follow the steps given in the link below to check if the issue occurs in Safe Mode.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/windows-startup-settings-including-safe-mode

Choose Safe Mode as the Startup Setting.

If you still can’t end the processes, continue to perform Step 2.

Step 2: Clean Boot

Follow the steps given in the link below to perform Clean Boot.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Check if you are able to end the processes in Clean Boot.

Note: Please go through step 3 of the Kb to keep the computer in normal startup after fixing the issue

Method 2: Re-install the games and check if the issue continues.

**Step 1:**Uninstall the games and check if you are able to end the tasks.

Step 2: Follow the link below to get help to install the games.

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall/

Please get back to us with the results.

If you have any further questions about Windows, write to us anytime.

We are happy to help!!

Regards,

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-29T21:32:40+00:00

    I'm having the same issue trying to kill a process.  How can this thread have gone on so long with no good response from Microsoft?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-05T00:36:08+00:00

    Can someone from Microsoft please provide a solution to this?  

    In Windows 8.1, I receive the following error message when I attempt to "end task" and "end process tree" for Excel.exe:

    "The operation could not be completed.  Access is denied."

    I am the administrator and the only user on this PC.

    I am unable to open any Office programs, and I assume that is related to the fact that three separate versions of Excel.exe are running.

    When I shut down the computer and restart it, all three versions of Excel.exe continue to run.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-06T11:41:42+00:00

    I had the EXACT same issue with battlefield 4.

    I even tried uninstalling & reinstalling the game, removing the plugin, using third party tools to end the process, and using command line (as admin) "taskkill /im bf4.exe /f"

    Nothing worked. NOTHING. Even process hacker failed me.

    The only way I could fix it was to perform a "system restore" to a time when it worked (Google will help if you don't know how). In the end it was relatively painless to do & much easier & faster than downloading again & reinstalling. Just do it, just fix your machine.

    The behaviour you are all experiencing is not how windows is supposed to work, it has got corrupted somehow.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-13T20:20:25+00:00

    I had the same issue with a simple program on windows 7, it would hang and taskmgr couldn't end the process as an admin user. The problem arose after I had installed a different firewall (private firewall),so it seemed to be my protective software forbidding access, even after I had added the program as 'trusted' manually within the firewall. That was possibly a co-incidence, but I got around the hanging and end process issue by simply re-installing the hanging program to another directory-straight to the C drive in my case. Perhaps it was just an old program that could not use the standard directory, so after that the hanging stopped occuring, I never needed to bring up taskmgr to end any process. PS installing straight to C is generally only recommended for trustworthy programs, as I believe this can give software less restrictions. So in your case,instead of installing to 'C:/Program Files/programname' you could try 'C:/programname').

     If changing directory doesn't help, make sure your firewall or antivirus isn't in 'gaming mode' as that is one of the most common reasons why programs and processes can hang indefinitely. You could also try turning off your antivirus and firewall manually whilst offline temporarily to see if that helps.

    Disabling other main 'startup' programs via accessories>run>msconfig, restarting and testing your software once more may also help. It is not recommended that you stop any microsoft services unless you know what you are doing. Remember to turn your firewall and security back on afterwards.

    You might also want to try running your problematic software in safe mode (your system will only use basic drivers for sound and graphics,but if your programs are able to run in safe mode, it might be a good test to see if you still have the same issue with hanging processes,as your system will start with only the minimum services and programs required for windows to run).

    Other freezing/hanging issues are often down to graphics problems in which you can try installing slightly older but compatible drivers.

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