Use taskkill for a Windows Service Stuck in Closing State

Introduction

When a Windows service is stuck in STOP_PENDING (often described as “closing”), a normal restart may fail.
A practical recovery pattern is:

1. Find the service PID.
2. Kill the process by PID.
3. Start the service again.

Run all commands in an elevated Command Prompt.

Step 1: Find service name in Services

Open services.msc, locate the service, and note its service name (not just display name).

Example service name:

VeeamManagementAgentSvc

Step 2: Find PID of the service

sc queryex VeeamManagementAgentSvc

Look for:

• STATE (for example STOP_PENDING)
• PID (for example 10776)

Step 3: Force-stop the stuck process

taskkill /f /pid 10776

Step 4: Start the service again

net start VeeamManagementAgentSvc

Full example flow (Veeam service)

sc queryex VeeamManagementAgentSvc
taskkill /f /pid 10776
net start VeeamManagementAgentSvc

Reusable variable pattern (CMD)

set sn=wuauserv
sc queryex %sn%

Then kill the PID returned by sc queryex:

taskkill /f /pid 8772

Optionally start it again:

net start %sn%

Quick checks after recovery

• Re-run sc queryex <ServiceName> and confirm the PID/state changed as expected.
• Check Event Viewer for service errors around the same timestamp.
• Confirm dependent applications are healthy.

Notes

• taskkill /f terminates the process immediately.
• If the service keeps getting stuck, investigate underlying causes (hung threads, dependency failures, AV interference, or resource pressure).
• For full syntax, use:

sc queryex /?
taskkill /?
net start /?