Marius Fett Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 I downloaded a file earlier, and i've now decided I don't need it. It's on my desktop, and every time I try to delete it, it says that the file can't be deleted because it's being used by another program.. I've tried restarting, i've tried restoring to a point before I got the file, and STILL it won't let me delete the file. Any suggestions?
tk102 Posted January 4, 2009 Posted January 4, 2009 Can you rename it? If so, do that and then restart. You should be able to delete it afterward. If that doesn't work, you might look do a Start: Run: msconfig and see if you can find the program that is launching during startup that is using it. Then disable that program, then delete the file after restarting.
Marius Fett Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 Nope, can't rename it. Edit: Nope, I can't find any program using it. This is REALLY annoying..
Marius Fett Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 Tried booting into Safe Mode, but I still couldn't delete it, or find anything that uses it..
Astrotoy7 Posted January 6, 2009 Posted January 6, 2009 lolz.. Marius, you do keep us busy! Try these (in order) 1. Download and deploy the take ownership registry key 2. make sure you have filetypes visible. eg. marius.doc (do this from folder and search options) 3. Once youve done the above > R click the file > click 'take ownership' ( a little cmd line window will flash) then rename to Marius.doc.bak. > reboot > delete. This only usually happens with system or corrupted files - what do you have? mtfbwya
Marius Fett Posted January 6, 2009 Author Posted January 6, 2009 lolz.. Marius, you do keep us busy! Try these (in order) 1. Download and deploy the take ownership registry key 2. make sure you have filetypes visible. eg. marius.doc (do this from folder and search options) 3. Once youve done the above > R click the file > click 'take ownership' ( a little cmd line window will flash) then rename to Marius.doc.bak. > reboot > delete. This only usually happens with system or corrupted files - what do you have? mtfbwya I try my best Astro.. I'll give what you've suggested a try.. Cheers.
Marius Fett Posted January 8, 2009 Author Posted January 8, 2009 Eich, update.. I installed that registry thingy.. It still wouldn't give me the oppurtunity to take ownership through the r-click menu, so I went into properties, etc etc and did it there. I still couldn't rename OR delete.. (And the ownership key thing DOES work, as i've tried it on other files, this one I can't delete is the only one it won't appear for.)
Astrotoy7 Posted January 10, 2009 Posted January 10, 2009 OK Try this applet called 'Take Control' Unzip contents of the zip archive to a folder and run. It will indicate whether you are running with appropriate admin priveleges. Sounds like a permissions gripe going on under the hood. I use this to bust into windows system files all the time. BTW, what error message is it giving you?? mtfbwya
Marius Fett Posted January 10, 2009 Author Posted January 10, 2009 ^Ok, i'll try that. The message is just your everyday "You cannot delete this file because it is still in use".
Astrotoy7 Posted January 12, 2009 Posted January 12, 2009 ^Ok, i'll try that. The message is just your everyday "You cannot delete this file because it is still in use". lolz, thats a remarkably stubborn file. That type of error message usually disappears after a reboot. What type of file is it? .doc image etc? mtfbwya
Marius Fett Posted January 13, 2009 Author Posted January 13, 2009 Indeed. It's really strarting to tick me off.. That take control thing got me nowhere.. It's a .exe
urluckyday Posted January 14, 2009 Posted January 14, 2009 Just a quick question, are you able to cut/paste it anywhere? (this happened to me and I was able to cut/paste "in use" file and put it on a flash drive and then i just formatted the flash drive...worked for me...) Sorry I can't help anymore though...best of luck!
tk102 Posted January 14, 2009 Posted January 14, 2009 I have a way you can kill that file. First take note of what the file is named, since you'll need to type it later. 1. Download the ISO image of the Ultimate Boot CD and burn the image to a CD. 2. Boot up with that CD. Press Enter when it prompts you to boot from CD. 3. Under Filesystem Tools: File Tools, run D-Browse. 3a. As this starts up, it will prompt your for a number of settings. The ones that you want to change are Enable LFN support and Enable NTFS support. Make sure both get toggled. (up arrow and then space bar to toggle) 4. When D-Browse starts up, it will ask you press the letter of your hard drive. That's probably C. When you type it, D-Browse will start building a big file tree of your hard disk. This will take a little time. 5. When it's done, press F3 to search for a file. Choose N for Not Case Sensitive and then type the file's name and enter to search. 6. When it finds it (should be C:\Documents and settings\<your name>\Desktop\), click on the highlighted path with your mouse and you'll jump to that part of the tree. 7. Finally, press F5 to delete the file. Eject the disk and reboot.
urluckyday Posted January 14, 2009 Posted January 14, 2009 install linux problem solved No because then instead of a problem file on your hands, you've got a bad OS on your hands *prepares for flame wars*
Q Posted January 14, 2009 Posted January 14, 2009 I guess that .exe is running on its own which is why you can't delete it. Depending on your OS (not sure whether it works with Vista), you might be able to use a handy little freeware program called WTF to kill it so that you can then delete it. It can also provide some useful information on the file itself. I've been using this program for years so I know that it's safe and effective as long as you don't try to kill the wrong .exe. @tk: That boot CD rocks!
Marius Fett Posted January 14, 2009 Author Posted January 14, 2009 install linux problem solved That might not be such a bad idea actually.. No because then instead of a problem file on your hands, you've got a bad OS on your hands *prepares for flame wars* Linux is only a bad OS f you don't take the time to learn how to use it. @tk: Ooh, thanks! I'll try Q's approach first though, as it seems less fiddly.
Astrotoy7 Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 still not fixed? wow. are you sure its not malware? as for Linux... someone elsewhere once described it perfectly Linux is only free if your time has no value. mtfbwya
tk102 Posted January 15, 2009 Posted January 15, 2009 Hard to believe this thread is still active after this long. Marius, if the operating system keeps getting in the way, go around it. The UBCD is a pretty simple way of doing just that.
Astrotoy7 Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 Marius, if the operating system keeps getting in the way, go around it. The UBCD is a pretty simple way of doing just that. Marius special combination of bad luck and reckless endeavour is what keeps getting in the way Lets hope this issue is fixed edit: is that really what tk stands for ?? I thought it was a nod to stormtrooper designations, or am I being too "star warsy" again mtfbwya
Marius Fett Posted January 16, 2009 Author Posted January 16, 2009 @tk: Looks like i'll have to. @Astro: It's true... I just don't seem to have much luck when it comes to that laptop... And I don't think it's Malware, i've scanned it with both Norton and Avast!, and they both say it's clean..
Astrotoy7 Posted January 29, 2009 Posted January 29, 2009 Marius... how did this adventure end?! Dont leave us on a cliffhanger ending, like when Picard became Locutus mtfbwya
Marius Fett Posted January 29, 2009 Author Posted January 29, 2009 Solved. Thanks to tk. I shall be more careful of what I D/L in future...
Astrotoy7 Posted February 2, 2009 Posted February 2, 2009 I shall be more careful of what I D/L in future... Now theres an understatement UBCD for teh win until the next time Marius blows something up... mtfbwya
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