Can not delete file.

[cloudlife]

I keep on getting these stupid files that say they can not be deleted because they are in use or blah blah.

It ranges from .exes to even movie files!!! And it's not being used, but it says it's being used and for that reason I can't delete it.

Does anybody know of a program or utility that can delete programs even though they are in use???

Because I kno there is a way to check the registary, delete a certain file, and then be able to delete the file. However, that takes a while for me to do.....so I'm hoping someone out there made a program.

Thxs in advance for any help.

 

[ohGrFreak]

when i am unable to delete a file (and this happens quite often), the name is too long. if you cannot delete a file in a certain folder, try changing the name of the file to something shorter, if that does not work, you may have to change the name of the folder that the file is in, the computer reads a file name as every folder/subfolder/subsubfolder/file and if this chain is too long, the comp will not let you delete it.

also, the file or folder the file is in may contain characters that the computer does not recognize, changing the name also works in this case.

if this does not work, i do not know what to tell you.

 

[Seria]

are the programs "installed" ? or are they just exe files sitting in a folder somewhere?

if they are installed, un-install them and then try deleting them again.

as for the movie files, go to the task-manager and close all running applications and stuff... then try deleting again.

I have had this problem b4 and some other program was using the files for some un-explained reason. once I turned everything off (and cleaned out my start-up directory) I was able to delete the files just fine and I have never had the problem since.

 

[cloudlife]

it's a short name "awdflash" and the folder is the Desktop......

any other suggestions. (Although thanks anyways. )

 

[Seria]

sometimes with those files with HUGE file names, you can't even re-name them...

but I found out that you can cheat the system... windows thinks that the name is long, however, dos is limited to 8 chars. go to the command prompt, find the file and detete using the dos-name.

 

[cloudlife]

they were Ms-Dos programs that tried to run in Windows Xp which obviously failed. then after i tried to delete it, it wouldn't delete.

also my startup is clean. i dun see what other programs would cause a movie file to be accessed......

Another Thank You. However, still open to more suggestions.

 

[Seria]

like I always say: "there is always good-old Fdisk"

what if another computer on the network is using the files? that is... if you are on a network.

 

[TheMajor]

try safe-mode.
terminate all unnesesary processes and try again

 

[willsko87]

There are file shredding programs and last resort would be deleting it through a DOS prompt