CMD what does /im (taskkill)?

I just read the following command:

taskkill /f /im something.exe

I read that /f forces the task to close, but what does /im do?

5 Answers

It tells taskkill that the next parameter something.exe is an image name, a.k.a executable name

C:\>taskkill /? TASKKILL [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] { [/FI filter] [/PID processid | /IM imagename] } [/T] [/F] Description: This tool is used to terminate tasks by process id (PID) or image name. Parameter List: /S system Specifies the remote system to connect to. /U [domain\]user Specifies the user context under which the command should execute. /P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context. Prompts for input if omitted. /FI filter Applies a filter to select a set of tasks. Allows "*" to be used. ex. imagename eq acme* /PID processid Specifies the PID of the process to be terminated. Use TaskList to get the PID. /IM imagename Specifies the image name of the process to be terminated. Wildcard '*' can be used to specify all tasks or image names. /T Terminates the specified process and any child processes which were started by it. /F Specifies to forcefully terminate the process(es). /? Displays this help message. 

it allows you to kill a task based on the image name like taskkill /im iexplore.exe or taskkill /im notepad.exe

If you type the executable name and a /? switch at the command line, there is typically help information available. Doing so with taskkill /? provides the following, for instance:

TASKKILL [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] { [/FI filter] [/PID processid | /IM imagename] } [/T] [/F] Description: This tool is used to terminate tasks by process id (PID) or image name. Parameter List: /S system Specifies the remote system to connect to. /U [domain\]user Specifies the user context under which the command should execute. /P [password] Specifies the password for the given user context. Prompts for input if omitted. /FI filter Applies a filter to select a set of tasks. Allows "*" to be used. ex. imagename eq acme* /PID processid Specifies the PID of the process to be terminated. Use TaskList to get the PID. /IM imagename Specifies the image name of the process to be terminated. Wildcard '*' can be used to specify all tasks or image names. /T Terminates the specified process and any child processes which were started by it. /F Specifies to forcefully terminate the process(es). /? Displays this help message. Filters: Filter Name Valid Operators Valid Value(s) ----------- --------------- ------------------------- STATUS eq, ne RUNNING | NOT RESPONDING | UNKNOWN IMAGENAME eq, ne Image name PID eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le PID value SESSION eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le Session number. CPUTIME eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le CPU time in the format of hh:mm:ss. hh - hours, mm - minutes, ss - seconds MEMUSAGE eq, ne, gt, lt, ge, le Memory usage in KB USERNAME eq, ne User name in [domain\]user format MODULES eq, ne DLL name SERVICES eq, ne Service name WINDOWTITLE eq, ne Window title NOTE ---- 1) Wildcard '*' for /IM switch is accepted only when a filter is applied. 2) Termination of remote processes will always be done forcefully (/F). 3) "WINDOWTITLE" and "STATUS" filters are not considered when a remote machine is specified. Examples: TASKKILL /IM notepad.exe TASKKILL /PID 1230 /PID 1241 /PID 1253 /T TASKKILL /F /IM cmd.exe /T TASKKILL /F /FI "PID ge 1000" /FI "WINDOWTITLE ne untitle*" TASKKILL /F /FI "USERNAME eq NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" /IM notepad.exe TASKKILL /S system /U domain\username /FI "USERNAME ne NT*" /IM * TASKKILL /S system /U username /P password /FI "IMAGENAME eq note*" 

You can also find this information, as well as documentation for most of the other command-line utilities, in the Microsoft TechNet Command-Line Reference

im is "image process name" example /f /im notepad.exe is specified to kill image process name (program) notepad.exe

See the doc : it will close all running tasks using the executable file something.exe, more or less like linux' killall