cleanup-chrome

To kill orphaned chromedriver and chrome.exe processes on Windows, you need a cleanup routine that counts active browser automation processes and force-terminates them repeatedly until clear. This restores Selenium stability by eliminating stale processes causing timeouts.

Selenium frontend acceptance tests fail with TimeoutException or Connection reset errors after an interrupted run because orphaned chromedriver and headless Chrome processes remain active, locking test artifacts and breaking Chrome DevTools connections. Clearing these stale processes resolves the mass failures.

The best way to clean up locked frontend test output directories after a Selenium crash is to first force-terminate leftover chromedriver.exe and chrome.exe processes, then remove the locked test output directories so acceptance test runs can start cleanly.

Yes, cleaning up stale Chrome processes may close active browser sessions. The cleanup routine warns about closing active Chrome sessions before it counts and force-terminates chrome.exe and chromedriver.exe processes to ensure all orphaned browser automation tasks are cleared.

Yes, you can reset your Windows test environment for browser automation without Task Manager by automating the process. A cleanup script counts chromedriver.exe and chrome.exe instances, force-terminates them, and removes locked test output, providing a full workspace reset.

A key limitation when force-terminating headless Chrome processes is the risk of closing active, unsaved Chrome browser sessions. Additionally, the process targets Windows chrome.exe and chromedriver.exe specifically, requiring repeated termination cycles to ensure no stale browser automation tasks remain.