Support

Product: Force Close Keys for Windows (Stream Deck plugin for Windows) · Provider: GRAMSHIFT (Tokyo, Japan)

Contact

Email contact@gramshift.com in English or Japanese. We reply within 7 business days, usually sooner. Please include your Windows version (Settings > System > About), your Stream Deck app version, the name of the game or app, whether it runs as administrator, and a photo or screenshot of the key and of its settings (the Status line says what the plugin sees).

Read this first: ending an app loses unsaved work

Holding a key of this plugin ends a program at once. The program gets no chance to save: anything in it that was not saved is lost, and this can not be undone. It is the same as "End task" in Task Manager. Use the short press (a normal request to close) whenever the program still answers, and the hold only for a program that is frozen.

Get started

Install the plugin from the Elgato Marketplace. In the Stream Deck app, find Force Close Keys for Windows in the action list and drag an action onto a key.
Not Responding shows 0 and OK while every app answers. When an app freezes, the key shows a number and the app's program name after a few seconds.
Hold the key until the bar on it is full (1.5 seconds unless you changed it). The key says ENDED when the program is gone. Release the key before the bar is full to cancel.

The actions

Not Responding: counts the apps with a visible window that Windows reports as "not responding". Count after: how long an app must have been reported that way, without a break, before the key counts it (at once, 3, 5, 10 or 30 seconds; 5 by default). A short press ends nothing. A hold ends the counted apps, and of those only the ones that still do not respond at the moment the hold is complete.
Close Front App: shows the program of the window in front. A short press asks that window to close, like its own close button: the program may ask you to save, and it may stay open. A hold ends the program at once.
Close App: the same for one program you choose in the settings. The list holds the programs that show a window at that moment, so start the program first and press the arrow next to the list. The key shows RUNNING while a process with that file name runs. A short press asks its windows to close; a hold ends every process with that file name.
Hold for (every action): 1, 1.5, 2 or 3 seconds. The time that counts is the one set when the key went down.

How it decides, and what that means

"Not responding" is Windows' judgment, not ours. The plugin asks Windows the question Task Manager asks (IsHungAppWindow). Windows says yes when a program has not looked at its messages for about 5 seconds. A game that is loading something heavy, or a program that is busy with a long task, can be reported this way although it would come back by itself. The plugin can not tell the two apart. That is why nothing is ended without a hold, why you can make the key wait longer before it counts an app, and why a hold ends only what still does not respond when the hold is complete. On our test PC a test program that looked at its messages only once every 3 seconds was never reported; one that stopped altogether was reported after 5.07 seconds.
What a hold may end is fixed when the key goes down (process number, start time and program file). When the hold is complete the plugin reads Windows again. If that process has ended, if its number now belongs to another program, or (Close Front App) if another app is in front by then, nothing is ended and the key says CHANGED (the Not Responding key says 0 "responding again" instead). If the PC slept or the plugin stood still during the hold, nothing is ended either. If the app answers again by then (Not Responding), nothing is ended and the key says 0 "responding again".
The key says ENDED only after the plugin has read from Windows that the process is gone. If it is still there, the key says FAILED.
A program that runs as administrator. The plugin runs with your normal rights. Windows does not let a normal program end one that runs with higher rights, so we expect the key to say FAILED "no permission" for it. We have not tested this case. The plugin never asks for administrator rights.
Games protected by anti-cheat, and programs protected by security software. Such software can keep other programs from ending the game. The key then says FAILED. We have not tested any anti-cheat software and make no statement about how it treats a program that ends the game's process from outside. The plugin does not read or modify the memory or files of any game and injects nothing.
Only that one process is ended. Processes the program had started (a launcher's game, a game's helper or crash reporter) keep running. In our test, a child process of an ended test program was still running afterwards. If the game window is gone but the game still counts as running in its launcher, end the remaining process with Close App or Task Manager.
A full-screen game that is frozen. This is what the plugin is for: the Stream Deck keys work while the screen is stuck. We tested with a frozen test window that was in front; Windows then puts a stand-in window in front, and the plugin finds the frozen program behind it. We have not tested any real game, and no exclusive full-screen game.

What the plugin never closes or ends

These are refused whatever the settings say:

The processes of Windows itself, by name: among them csrss, wininit, winlogon, services, lsass, smss, svchost, dwm, fontdrvhost, sihost, ctfmon, the Start menu, search and text input hosts, the lock screen, Task Manager, and explorer (the desktop and the taskbar, and with them every folder window). A frozen Explorer has to be restarted from Task Manager; this plugin does not do it.
The Stream Deck app, this plugin, and every program whose file is inside the Stream Deck app's folders (its helper processes and other plugins).
Processes of another Windows session (services, another signed-in user).
A process whose program file Windows does not let the plugin read: it can not be checked against this list.
While the desktop, the taskbar, the Start menu or the Stream Deck app is in front, Close Front App shows -- and does nothing.
Some apps from the Microsoft Store show their window through a process of Windows (ApplicationFrameHost), which is on the list above. We expect Close Front App to say "protected" for them; Close App with the app's own program may still work. We have not tested Store apps.

What we tested, and what we did not

Tested on one PC (Windows 11), with the plugin as shipped running on the Node.js of Stream Deck 7.6, on test programs the test started itself (small PowerShell windows and a copy of node.exe under its own name): a window that answers is not counted; a window whose program stopped handling messages is counted with its program name (about 8 seconds after it froze, with "Count after" set to 3 seconds); a short press of Not Responding ends nothing; a hold ends the frozen test process and leaves the other test window alone; a short press of Close Front App closes the test window in front normally; a frozen test window in front is found behind Windows' stand-in window and ended by a hold; Close App ends the uniquely named test process. A second process read from Windows that exactly these processes were gone.

Not tested: any particular game or app; exclusive full-screen games; a program running as administrator; anti-cheat and security software; apps from the Microsoft Store; a frozen program with several windows or several processes; console programs; more than one signed-in user; a real Stream Deck device key held down (the tests send the same messages the Stream Deck app sends); Windows 10; ARM PCs.

What the keys show

Key	Meaning
Not Responding: `0` "OK"	Windows reports no app with a visible window as not responding.
Not Responding: `0` "checking 1"	An app is reported as not responding, but not yet for the time set in "Count after". A hold ends nothing yet.
Not Responding: amber frame, a number, a program name	That many apps have not responded for the set time. The name is the first one; "+2" means two more. The settings page lists all names.
Not Responding: `0` "1 protected"	Something that the plugin never ends does not respond (for example Explorer).
Close Front App: a program name, "hold to end"	The program of the window in front. With an amber frame and "not responding": Windows reports it as not responding.
Close Front App: gray, a program name, "protected"	The plugin never closes or ends this program.
Close App: `RUNNING` / `--` "not running"	Whether a process with the chosen file name runs that the plugin can read and may end. "2 processes": how many. A program that Windows does not let the plugin read (for example one protected by anti-cheat) can show "not running" although it runs.
Dark red, `HOLD`, a bar, "release = cancel"	The key is held. When the bar is full, the plugin reads Windows again and ends what the key showed. Release to cancel.
`ENDED`	Read back from Windows: the process is gone.
`ASKED` "to close", then `CLOSED` or `OPEN` "still running"	After a short press: the request was sent. CLOSED when the process is gone within about 3 seconds; OPEN when it is still there (it may be asking you to save). OPEN is not an error.
Amber frame, `FAILED` "no permission" / "still running"	Windows refused to end the process, or it was still there when the plugin read again.
Amber frame, `CHANGED` "nothing ended"	When the hold was complete, the app was no longer the one the key showed at the press.
Amber frame, `PROTECTED` "never ended"	The press was on something the plugin never closes or ends.
Amber frame, `NO WINDOW` "hold to end"	Close App: the program runs but shows no window that could be asked to close.
Amber frame, `--` "reinstall plugin"	The plugin could not load its Windows part. Remove the plugin in the Stream Deck app and install it again from the Elgato Marketplace.

Questions

The key shows the name of a file, not the name of the game.
The key shows the program's file name without ".exe" (for example the game's executable). The plugin does not read window titles.

My game was loading and the key counted it.
Windows reported it as not responding. Nothing is ended unless you hold the key. Set "Count after" to 10 or 30 seconds if your game does this often.

The key says FAILED.
Windows refused, or the process was still there. Most likely the program runs as administrator or is protected. Use Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), or Ctrl+Alt+Del.

The game is gone but its launcher says it is still running.
Another process of the game is still there. See "Only that one process is ended" above.

Can it close a program automatically when it freezes?
No. Nothing is ever closed or ended without a press or a hold.

Does it work on Mac?
No. This plugin is for Windows 10 and 11 only.

Privacy

To show program names and to end a program, the plugin reads program file names and process numbers on your PC and opens processes. Nothing is logged or sent to us or to any online service. See the Privacy Policy for exactly what is read and what is done.