Managing Windows Ports and Processes

Managing Windows Ports and Processes | Generated by AI

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On Windows, you can check which ports are being listened to — and by which process (PID) — using netstat, and then manage or kill those processes with taskkill. This is often needed when debugging backend projects like Java Spring Boot apps, Redis, or MySQL. Here’s how:

1. Check listening ports

Run Command Prompt (cmd) or PowerShell as Administrator:

netstat -ano | findstr LISTENING

-a → show all connections and listening ports
-n → show addresses and ports in numeric form
-o → include PID (Process ID)

Example output:

TCP    0.0.0.0:8080     0.0.0.0:0     LISTENING     12345
TCP    0.0.0.0:3306     0.0.0.0:0     LISTENING     6789

Here:

Port 8080 is used by PID 12345 (likely your Spring Boot app).
Port 3306 is used by PID 6789 (MySQL).

2. Find which process that PID belongs to

You can match the PID to a process name:

tasklist | findstr 12345

Output might show:

java.exe                  12345 Console                    1     512,000 K

That means your Spring Boot app is running on port 8080.

3. Kill the process if needed

If you want to stop that process:

taskkill /PID 12345 /F

/PID → specifies process ID
/F → force kill

4. Typical ports for common backend services

Spring Boot (Java app): 8080, 8081, etc.
MySQL: 3306
Redis: 6379
PostgreSQL: 5432

So, if you see those ports in the netstat output, you’ll know which service is running.

👉 Pro tip: You can combine these into one command to directly find which process is using a given port (e.g., 8080):

netstat -ano | findstr :8080

Then take the PID and check it with tasklist.

Do you want me to also show you a PowerShell one-liner that directly maps ports to process names without needing to check separately with tasklist?

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