task manager - Killing a program from the start menu in windows 8
2014-07
jcw
Occasionally, I have a program that freezes, and then refuses to give the screen to me so I can use the normal task manager to kill it, and no amount of alt-tabbing or ctrl-alt-deleting can get rid of it.
In old versions of windows, this was a situation where I said goodbye to any unsaved work and hit the power button. However, with windows 8, I have found that I can still access the start screen - and this gives me a significant amount of hope that there is a way to kill a program from the start screen.
Unfortunately, my searches for task managing apps on the windows 8 app store are fruitless, because as you might or might not expect, todo list making apps are all that come up (people really spend more time organising their todo lists than killing unresponsive programs??). Also a search for a start screen based command line turned up nothing but command line dictionaries.
Is there a way, through a specific app or other wise, that I can kill a program that is running on my computer solely using the start screen?
Annonomus Penguin
No you can not, however you can easily launch task manager with "CTRL" + "SHIFT" + "ESC" (faster than CTRL ALT DEL to bring up; no menus). Also, you can right click in the lower left corner of your screen and hit "Task Manager". Once you're there, just right click on the betraying program and hit "Go to details" and right click again and click on the end task button. Sometimes I have seen with Java applications it will go to "explore.exe" if it is listed multiple times. DO NOT close this; it will close out of your desktop and taskbar. You'll have to shut it down with task manager or another trick like shortcuts (or open it back up with task manager. EDIT: If you do this out of stupidity, to shut down, you'll have to do WIN + L to lock the account which gives you the option to shut down. I did this just to see how to do this but...
It is one easy way to get rid of metro :D)
Oxymoron
have you tried searching on your computer? at the start screen, just type "task manager" it should show up. Although when you launch it, you may just end right back up at the desktop.
Have you tried waiting for the process to finish? How long?
ACarter
If you go to start, then search in Windows 8, you see a list of applications (both desktop and Metro).
Many of the (desktop) applications I have running on my PC are not listed here however, because of the way I installed Windows 8.
How can I add a (desktop) application to this list?
(Not pin an application to the start screen so it has a tile, but pin a (desktop) program to this list of apps.)
SLaks
Go to
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
and add a shortcut to your application there. Then it will be available in All Apps.
Alternatively, use the
C:\Users\your username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
folder.
James Lawruk
Here is a more verbose set of instructions:
Right click on the application exe file, select Create Shortcut.
You will see the message, Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the Desktop instead? Choose Yes.
Go to the desktop, see your new shortcut, rename the Shortcut to your preferred title.
Cut the shortcut from the desktop, and paste it into the folder
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs(mentioned by DZinX).You will see the message, You'll need to provide administrator permission to move to this folder. Select Continue.
Try searching for your title and see your application in the list!
Matthew Wong
Well you can right click the app you want to add to the app menu and on the lower left you will see the icon "Pin to start". Click on that and your app will be pinned.
Edit: Just saw the screen. Never mind my answer is invalid.