farmerwrx

pc says they are being used by another program won't drag and drop to recycle bin etc?

Iain Young

That's probably because they are being used by another program, (I suspect something has not shut down properly). Try rebooting your pc then delete them.

farmerwrx

job done thanks a lot

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Nice feature of XP that isnt it

To do this without booting, go start/run/cmd and then CD to the dir where the files are, ie.

c:
cd \files

then delete em,

del files.exe

Iain Young

That won't work if a program has them locked though. I've noticed that sometimes (especially since SP2) when you close windows explorer, it doesn't always shut down properly, and leaves directories locked etc. The especially happens if you have viewed directories containing photos. Often it locks the hidden thumbs.db file in the directory, requiring you to reboot before you can delete it. Most frustrating...

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Ok some clarification. If the app has crashed n is hung in taskmanager then no it wont, but the question was about when u try to delete a file which isnt in use by anything. The error msg XP gives u is misleading.

I usually see it with files within folders, and yeh usually picture folders. U get the error, go into the folder and the files within have been deleted, but u cant delete the folder itself. Go into DOS and then deltree the folder and it works This has also worked for individual files for me to.

Also u can get around it by loggin off n back on again, quicker than rebooting

Hanley

Use a program called WhoLockMe, tells you what is holding onto it

Download for free here http://www.dr-hoiby.com/WhoLockMe/index.php

Gridlock Mikey

What am I meant to do with this? Save and unzip to where?

Also

bioforgerNice feature of XP that isnt it

To do this without booting, go start/run/cmd and then CD to the dir where the files are, ie.

c:
cd \files

then delete em,

del files.exe

Is this in DOS?

HANSLOW See me talking to a techie person

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Yep, as I said
start/run
type cmd

Hanley

Unzip to your %SYSTEMROOT% and reboot your pc and the WhoLockMe option will then appear as a context menu option

Iain Young

Technically speaking no.

If you run cmd.exe then you are just invoking the XP command shell. If you want to invoke DOS, then run command.exe

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Pedantic sod

Iain Young

Gridlock Mikey

HANSLOW>>>>>>> HELP!!