This Windows 11 hidden feature needs to be enabled. Use two clicks to end any program that isn't responding.
Since ancient times, when a program crashed or stopped responding in Windows, the way to close it was to use the Windows Task Manager. To do this, press the keyboard shortcut Control + Alt + Esc, then search the list for the program that wasn't running. It's a process that, while simple, is still quite cumbersome. Thankfully, 30 years later, Microsoft has finally released what I consider the best feature of the operating system.
When everything is working as expected, we can close any program or window by clicking the X that appears in the upper-right corner of the window. So far, nothing new. If this button doesn't work, we should look for other ways to close it, either from the Task Manager (if everything is working fine), or by restarting the computer directly.
Now, with Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft has introduced a new feature that lets you instantly close any program that stops responding, without any keyboard shortcuts. Just two clicks will be enough to end any blocked process.
This new option appears under the name "End Task." It can be found in the context menu of the Windows taskbar. This means that all you need to do is right-click on the icon of the program that has stopped working to select the option shown in the previous screenshot.
The problem here is that despite being one of the most useful Windows features, it's not enabled by default. What's more, it's hidden. So, to get started using it right away, we'll show you how to easily activate it.
How to activate the End task feature
To activate this feature in Windows, all we have to do is access the operating system's Settings menu. We can do this from Start > Settings, or even faster by using the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + I.
Once inside, we need to look for the developer options for the operating system. These items are located under "System > Developers." There, we'll see a series of advanced options for the Windows operating system. But the one that interests us most is the one labeled "End task."
Activate it, and that's it. Once activated (and your computer restarted to ensure the changes were applied correctly), the "End task" option should appear when you right-click on any icon in the Windows 11 taskbar.
If we want to disable this option, we just have to go back to the settings menu we saw earlier and uncheck the box. It's that simple.