PowerShell kill multiple processes

arrays powershell process terminate
skrap3e picture skrap3e · Aug 28, 2014 · Viewed 14.9k times · Source

I am trying to accomplish the following via PS and having an issue getting what I need. I have tried many different formats for writing this script and this is the closest I have gotten I think.

I run the following and no error, but no result either.

$softwarelist = 'chrome|firefox|iexplore|opera'
get-process |
Where-Object {$_.ProcessName -eq $softwarelist} |
stop-process -force

Here is another example that I was trying, but this one wasn't terminating all the process I was providing (IE in W8.1).

1..50 | % {notepad;calc}

$null = Get-WmiObject win32_process -Filter "name = 'notepad.exe' OR name = 'calc.exe'" |

% { $_.Terminate() }

Thanks for any help!

Answer

Aaron Jensen picture Aaron Jensen · Aug 29, 2014

Your $softwarelist variable looks like a regular expression, but in your Where-Object condition, you're using the -eq operator. I think you want the -match operator:

$softwarelist = 'chrome|firefox|iexplore|opera'
get-process |
    Where-Object {$_.ProcessName -match $softwarelist} |
    stop-process -force

You can also pass multiple processes to Get-Process, e.g. 

Get-Process -Name 'chrome','firefox','iexplore','opera' | Stop-Process -Force

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