How to Turn Off Microsoft ActiveSync
September 8th, 2008I have mentioned before how I hate Microsoft ActiveSync. In this post I want to tell you how to turn off Microsoft ActiveSync, since there is no “exit” option and it runs as soon as you boot your computer.
(See also Why Do I Hate ActiveSync, Let Me Count The Ways”)
The problem is, many times you will need to install or uninstall software that has it’s bloody little hooks iinto Microsoft Outlook or some other MS Office application.
In order for that install to work properly, the other application may tell you to exit all Microsoft applications. “But I have, darn it!” is your polite response. Well, not quite, because ActiveSync is still running (did you notice you get pop-ups when new email messages arrive but you haven’t opened Outlook yet since you rebooted last?).
What you have to do is invoke Task Manager one of these ways:
- Simultaneously press CTRL-SHIFT-ESC
- Right click the taskbar and select Task Manager
- Simultaneously press CTRL-ALT-DEL and select Task Manager (only works if Windows User Fast Switching is turned off)
Then click on the “Processes” tab, Click the “Image Name” column heading to alphabetize the list, then, in turn, select “WCESMgr.exe” and click the “End Process” button and acknowledge the warning followed by selecting “wcescomm.exe” and click “End Process” button and acknowledge that warning.
Note: the ActiveSync green icon in the system tray may still be visible, but if you hold your mouse over it it will go away.
Now! Microsoft ActiveSync is turned off.
Re-starting ActiveSync is much easier. Microsoft has cluttered your Start Menu with a shortcut to turn it on.. They must have determined that you would eventually figure out how to turn the thing off without their help.
If you would like to create a batch file to kill activesync conveniently:
- Right click on an empty spot on your desktop and select “New”, then “Text Document”
- You will need to rename the file “Kill ActiveSync.bat” or something similar, but it must have the “.bat” extension. (First, you may need to enable seeing file extensions. Open Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options. Click on the View tab and make sureĀ “Hide extensions for known file types is unchecked.)
- Right click this new document and select “Edit”
- Create these two lines in the file, then exit and save.
- TaskKill /IM wcescomm.exe /F
- TaskKill /IM WCESMgr.exe /F
Now any time you want to kill ActiveSync you can just double click your new batch file. ActiveSync can be restarted by rebooting or finding the program icon that Microsoft created in the Start Menu for it. You will probably have to unplug then re-plug in your device.




