File Being Used

[nodeffect]

You see, I;m trying to delete some files in my pc, but they say it's used by other programs and can;t be delete.... is there anyway to know that a certain file is being used by which program ? something like a program that checks a file is being used by who and could tell me that program... Thanks alot :thumbsup:

[sweenster]

this nice little problem happens because of badly-written code in windows XP. The file has been "locked" by windows when it was being used but windows never bothered to unlock it once it had finished.

Two ways to get rid of:

1) Save any work you have then press CTRL + ALT + DEL and go to processes tab. Right click on 'explorer.exe' and select 'end process tree'. This will make explorer close down and you'll be left with only the task menu. Go to "new task" and type in "cmd" to access the command prompt. navigate to folder where file is and delete it. To resume windows either restart or go to "new task" and type in "explorer.exe".

2) A nice free-ware utility that will delete the file on restarting windows.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html
Install the program then right click on the file to see "delete on restart" on the context menu. Select this option