Why Python can not execute the cmd command 'tskill'?

Question

In general, we can use Python to execute Windows's cmd command, for example:

 os.system('ipconfig')

but I find that tskill can not be executed by Python, if I use:

os.system('tskill 8684')

to kill a process by its pid, Python will show cmd's error:

'tskill' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

but it work well if I use cmd to run the command.

As I know tskill.exe is located in C:\Windows\System32, but this path is not in Python's environment variable. It is maybe the reason, but ipconfig.exe is also in System32, it can be executed.

So why tskill can not be executed by os.system or subprocess.Popen?

which version of Python do you have? and what about your OS? — Giordano, Jul 27 '16 at 10:47
Possible duplicate of [Is it possible to kill a process on Windows from within Python?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6278847/is-it-possible-to-kill-a-process-on-windows-from-within-python) — U.Swap, Jul 27 '16 at 10:48
When you ran `tskill` direct from `cmd.exe`, did you run using Administrator access? — cdarke, Jul 27 '16 at 10:56
@cdarke no, just win+R input cmd and then press enter, not using Administrator access — Kingname, Jul 27 '16 at 11:00

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 29 '16 at 01:27

3

I have found the root reason:

My Python is 32-bit, while My PC is Windows7 64-bit, so Python's os.system can not run tskill. If I use Python 64-bit instead, everything is OK.

answered Jul 29 '16 at 01:27

Kingname

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 14:12

Use taskkill, which can do pretty much everything as tskill

But if you want to stick to tskill.exe in your scripts/code. Please run the scripts from elevated command prompts. (Right click on cmd.exe and run it as administrator)

os.system('c:\windows\system32\tskill.exe 8684')

Why Python can not execute the cmd command 'tskill'?

2 Answers2