How to kill a process using a port
Stop the process holding a port with PortPilot ProcessGuard, or fall back to OS tools.
Killing the wrong pid is worse than a busy port. PortPilot’s Kill process uses ProcessGuard (pid + start time + executable) so a recycled pid is rejected.
With PortPilot
- Open the port in Desktop or the website.
- Choose Kill Process. This is included on Free.
- Confirm the dialog. The helper performs the allowlisted kill — there is no shell.
If a service owns the port, prefer Stop service / Restart service instead of kill.
The CLI does not expose kill yet.
OS fallbacks
Windows: Task Manager or taskkill /PID <pid>. Linux: kill <pid> after you have identified it. Those tools do not implement ProcessGuard.