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PortKill is a lightweight Command Palette extension developed by JasonTiw that integrates with Microsoft PowerToys to streamline the identification and termination of processes that occupy TCP ports on Windows systems. Targeted primarily at developers, QA engineers, and system administrators, the tool surfaces inside PowerToys Run (the built-in launcher) and lets users type a port number or keyword to receive an instant list of matching processes together with their PID; a single keystroke then terminates the selected process, releasing the port without forcing the user to open Task Manager, Resource Monitor, or an elevated command prompt. Typical use cases include freeing the default 3000, 5000, 8000, or 8080 ports that are frequently left lingering after Node.js, Python Flask, .NET, or Docker sessions, unblocking SQL Server or MySQL ports when a previous instance fails to shut down cleanly, and quickly resolving “address already in use” errors during iterative development or CI testing. Because the extension respects PowerToys’ existing security context, it can be invoked from a non-elevated prompt yet will request UAC elevation only when the target process holds system-level rights, thereby balancing convenience with minimal privilege escalation. The inaugural release, version 0.0.1.0, ships as a single self-contained DLL that drops into the PowerToys modules folder and requires no additional runtime; automatic updates are expected to follow the same semantic-versioning scheme whenever new builds are published. PortKill is classified under the “System Tuning & Utilities” category and is available for free on get.nero.com, where downloads are provided through trusted Windows package sources such as winget, always delivering the latest version and supporting batch installation of multiple applications.
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