[SOLVED] Nothing I have tried will close this process, how can I close it?

[Lord Huntington]

For some time now, certain programs will freeze, get a whiter layer on top of them. It first says that the program is not responding and then changes to windows is not responding. It cannot be closed manually and task manager claims that "access is denied". CMD does not work either for some reason. Screenshot. The only thing that works is to restart my PC.

What could this be?

Thankful for any help.

 

[Sayon]

Did you check the Task Manager Startup apps and Install List of programs?
Otherwise search in the register for this key and delete it or set it to 0 (zero)

 

[britechguy]

All of what follows presumes any issue that is occurring is not secondary to a malicious infection. If you believe it is, then your first order of business should be attempting to exorcise your system of said infection. That’s a topic of its own and won’t be covered here.

If you are experiencing unexpected issues immediately or very shortly after any update has been applied, then the first thing you should do is use the Windows 10 built-in capability to uninstall the latest update that’s suspected of causing the issue:

• Open Settings, Update & Security. This should take you to the Windows Update Pane by default.
• In the Windows Update Pane, locate the View update history control, and activate it.
• In the View Update History dialog, locate the Uninstall updates link and activate it.
• In the Installed Updates dialog, the updates will be listed in groupings, with the groups alphabetically ordered, and the items within each group ordered by date – most recently installed first (if no one has changed the defaults). In most cases, you’ll be looking to uninstall a Microsoft Windows update, and those are generally the final group. The number of updates available for uninstalling is shown in parentheses after the Microsoft Windows group name.
• Almost all Windows Updates will have a KB number associated with them, and if you know that use this as what you search on for the actual update. Select it.
• Activate the Uninstall button located above the list of updates, and the selected update will be uninstalled.

If it’s not an update that’s suspected of causing an issue, there are other steps you can take. Before going any further, it must be noted that a repair install (or feature update, when those are being done) allows one to keep all of one's files and apps (desktop/installed and store varieties). This is in complete contrast to a Reset (which allows either keeping just one’s files or wiping everything), or a Refresh/Fresh Start or Completely Clean Reinstall, both of which wipe everything.

My standard advice, in virtually all cases, (and presuming any potential infection has already been addressed, first) is trying the following, in the order specified. If the issue is fixed by option one then there's no need to go further. Stop whenever your issue is fixed:

1. Using SFC (System File Checker) and DISM (Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management) to Repair Windows 8 & 10

2. Doing a Windows 10 Repair Install or Feature Update Using the Windows 10 ISO file

3. Doing a completely clean reinstall (options a & b are downloadable PDF files):

a) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

b) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive
c) How to do a CLEAN Installation of Windows 10 (Tom’s Hardware Forums, with screen shots)

I never choose the “thermonuclear option”, the completely clean reinstall, until it's clear that this is the only viable option. I hate having to go through all the work of reconfiguring a machine from scratch if that can reasonably and safely be avoided.

 

[Lord Huntington]

All of what follows presumes any issue that is occurring is not secondary to a malicious infection. If you believe it is, then your first order of business should be attempting to exorcise your system of said infection. That’s a topic of its own and won’t be covered here.

If you are experiencing unexpected issues immediately or very shortly after any update has been applied, then the first thing you should do is use the Windows 10 built-in capability to uninstall the latest update that’s suspected of causing the issue:

• Open Settings, Update & Security. This should take you to the Windows Update Pane by default.
• In the Windows Update Pane, locate the View update history control, and activate it.
• In the View Update History dialog, locate the Uninstall updates link and activate it.
• In the Installed Updates dialog, the updates will be listed in groupings, with the groups alphabetically ordered, and the items within each group ordered by date – most recently installed first (if no one has changed the defaults). In most cases, you’ll be looking to uninstall a Microsoft Windows update, and those are generally the final group. The number of updates available for uninstalling is shown in parentheses after the Microsoft Windows group name.
• Almost all Windows Updates will have a KB number associated with them, and if you know that use this as what you search on for the actual update. Select it.
• Activate the Uninstall button located above the list of updates, and the selected update will be uninstalled.

If it’s not an update that’s suspected of causing an issue, there are other steps you can take. Before going any further, it must be noted that a repair install (or feature update, when those are being done) allows one to keep all of one's files and apps (desktop/installed and store varieties). This is in complete contrast to a Reset (which allows either keeping just one’s files or wiping everything), or a Refresh/Fresh Start or Completely Clean Reinstall, both of which wipe everything.

My standard advice, in virtually all cases, (and presuming any potential infection has already been addressed, first) is trying the following, in the order specified. If the issue is fixed by option one then there's no need to go further. Stop whenever your issue is fixed:

1. Using SFC (System File Checker) and DISM (Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management) to Repair Windows 8 & 10

2. Doing a Windows 10 Repair Install or Feature Update Using the Windows 10 ISO file

3. Doing a completely clean reinstall (options a & b are downloadable PDF files):

a) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

b) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive
c) How to do a CLEAN Installation of Windows 10 (Tom’s Hardware Forums, with screen shots)

I never choose the “thermonuclear option”, the completely clean reinstall, until it's clear that this is the only viable option. I hate having to go through all the work of reconfiguring a machine from scratch if that can reasonably and safely be avoided.

Thank you, I will try these steps now. I have had bitdefender run on aggressive mode from day 1 and I would like to think that I never click shady links. But if I understand you correctly, you think that malware could be a possible reason for this happening?

 

[britechguy]

I doubt it's malware given what you've offered, but there are all sorts of tiny, subtle corruptions of system files that can trigger very odd behaviors at times. Hence steps numbers 1 and 2 to try to cure those.

I get occasional "not responding" messages about virtually any program you can name, and those always "self resolve." However, I don' t game, and I understand having an active game come to a halt is more of a big deal effectively than having MS-Word go into "not responding" mode for a few seconds.