Processes not closing after quiting programs

Windows Version number: 1903 (OS build 18362.449)




Greetings Ladies & Gentlemen,


Recently I've noticed that the processes of programs I run are not terminated after quitting them. I first discovered this when I was using the Uplay client. It got stuck during initialisation, so I closed the program and went to re-run it, but it didn't open, so I went in to task manager and tried to end the task but it would not close. I had to restart my PC to get it to close. I didn't think too much of it until today when I went to install Firefox. It installed and worked fine when I ran the program, but later when I went to open the browser it wouldn't open and was told by a Firefox prompt that the existing process would have to be closed before it could open, so I clicked close and then the same warning popped up. I went into task manager to end the process and it would not do it, so I uninstalled the program and for some strange reason the process was STILL running even after uninstallation. I had to restart my PC. Installed Chrome, same thing happens, it runs initially but if I close and try to re-open it will not launch. Sure enough there is the Chrome process running that will not close. I right-clicked the process -> go to details-> end process tree and was told the operation could not be completed, access is denied.

What the hell is going on? Anyone ever have this? Answers appreciated.

Does the "closed" show on the task bar and on task manager?

Do a system file check. Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
SFC /scannow

Megahertz said:

Does the "closed" show on the task bar and on task manager?

Do a system file check. Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
SFC /scannow

Hello Megahertz, thankyou kindly for replying. There was no "closed" either in task bar or task manager. I've circumvented the problem by reverting to an earlier image I had wisely backed up on an external hard drive, so things seem to be working okay at the moment. I did not use the scannow option but did perform a

“chkdsk c: /f /r /x”. which took about 2-3 hours to no benefit. I should have pointed out that I used the taskkill command on the recalcitrant processes but was informed there was no process existant, which was strange as it was clearly running in task manager. I noticed the Chrome process while situated in the Apps section of the Task manager behaved itself for a while as I was able to shut down and also restart, but then the process would move to the Background processes tab of the task manager and then become impossible to kill. I should also point out that it wasn't just Chrome. Most of my applications running in the task bar like Steam, Kaspersky Anti-virus also suffered. I could right click and select exit, where the icons would disappear from task bar as expected, but the processes of each of these applications would remain and become unkillable and I could not re-launch anyone of them.

As I said, it's not a major concern now that I have reverted to an earlier image and things seem to be okay, however it would have been nice to ascertain the cause of the problem that resulted in this happening in the first place.

Edit: I perhaps should also have mentioned there was a significant slow down on my Restart and Shutdown procedures while this problem persisted, which of course seems to have disappeared now I have reverted.

templar said:

I did not use the scannow option but did perform a “chkdsk c: /f /r /x”. which took about 2-3 hours to no benefit.

You should do a SFC /scannow. You may find corrupted files that are the reason of your issues.

A disk check doesn't take more than a few minutes, unless it has to correct huge problems.
Please retrieve the disk check log and post it here.
How To Extract The Check Disk (CHKDSK) Logs From Event Viewer on Windows

Your disk is fine.

Do a system file check. Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
SFC /scannow

It will take some minutes and show the results.

Megahertz said:

Your disk is fine.

Do a system file check. Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
SFC /scannow

It will take some minutes and show the results.

Beginning system scan. This process will take some time.
Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

I thought that it should be okay. As I said I reverted to an earlier system image (not restore point) that I made when I freshly installed Windows 10. I should have sent you the reports before I reverted, they might have showed errors but I just thought it would be easier to restore an earlier image.

I'll mark this thread solved and thank you for your help. If the problem should re-occur in the future I will create a new thread.

Good you found a solution.