xenon2000 Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 Windows XP Pro, SP2, all windows updates. Dot net 1, 2, and 3. No fast user switching, etc.random files of any file type will become locked and when I try to move or delete them I get the error:Cannot move some_random_filename it is being used by another person or program.Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.I tried using apps like Unlocker. And while it worked 50% of the time, 50% is no good... and on my other computers I never have this issue. So I would now like to just figure out what the real problem is and fix it.Any ideas? I have already used tools to see what is locking the files, and no handles even show for the affected files, so I have little to search on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenon2000 Posted October 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 Windows XP Pro, SP2, all windows updates. Dot net 1, 2, and 3. No fast user switching, etc.random files of any file type will become locked and when I try to move or delete them I get the error:Cannot move some_random_filename it is being used by another person or program.Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.I tried using apps like Unlocker. And while it worked 50% of the time, 50% is no good... and on my other computers I never have this issue. So I would now like to just figure out what the real problem is and fix it.Any ideas? I have already used tools to see what is locking the files, and no handles even show for the affected files, so I have little to search on.Well, here is the fix... found it on another forum.deleted HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}Going to see if it solved this for all file types as time goes on. But so far it made an immediate difference without rebooting for the media files I was trying to move/delete/rename.EDIT: NOT FIXED..... I thought it did because I was able to move 1 file after doing this. But tried on another file and it did not work. Rebooted and that same file does not move/delete/rename... so this did not solve my issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 If the file is in use, this means there is a program using it. Any programs like Anti Virus which have real-time scanning or perhaps an indexing service will be using files constantly.Of course, you should never delete a file when you don't know what it is.Try deleting this file in Safe Mode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenon2000 Posted October 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 If the file is in use, this means there is a program using it. Any programs like Anti Virus which have real-time scanning or perhaps an indexing service will be using files constantly.Of course, you should never delete a file when you don't know what it is.Try deleting this file in Safe Mode.The random files are in use by explorer.exe , but more specifically a DLL. But after another reboot, it doesn't seem to be happening any more since deleting the registry key I mentioned. It's easier to use unlocker or end task on explorer.exe, instead of rebooting into Safe Mode. But I got tired of that and wanted to just solve the real issue. So far deleting the key and 2 reboots as solved it.Going to see if it says fixed before I do anything more. (since obviously I can't test further ideas until I run into more locked files.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 What exactly are you trying to delete anyways? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenon2000 Posted October 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 What exactly are you trying to delete anyways?media files. .avi .mpg .mp3 etc..... but after weeks of this issue, deleting the above registry key and rebooting twice has fixed it so far. Hopefully it stays that way. But also, now when I right-click and go to properties, there are no video properties. But oh well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarecrow Man Posted October 1, 2007 Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 Do you have a large quantity of those files in a particular folder? It could be the indexing service, or an anti-virus has a real time scan.What anti-virus do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenon2000 Posted October 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 Do you have a large quantity of those files in a particular folder? It could be the indexing service, or an anti-virus has a real time scan.What anti-virus do you use?Not happening anymore, but happened with media files in many many folders and not all folders where sub folders of the same folder.I use Avast. As I mentioned before, it was explorer.exe that was locking the files. And no open files by network users. So far the solution has been deleting that registry key. Going to see how things go this week and hopefully the issue doesn't come back. If it does come back, I will post again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coreper Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 i recommend you use Unlocker, since windows says the files are being used by a program [it could be the case, even though you cant see it]its a great program, light weight, and really easy to use!it allows you to see which programs are using the files, and gives you the ablility to shut them down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenon2000 Posted October 2, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 i recommend you use Unlocker, since windows says the files are being used by a program [it could be the case, even though you cant see it]its a great program, light weight, and really easy to use!it allows you to see which programs are using the files, and gives you the ablility to shut them downPlease read at least the first post. The very first thing I said was that I have already tried and used Unlocker. Sure it's a great program if you want to be lazy and not figure out the real issue. Which is what I did for almost a month. But got tired of Unlocker only working 50% of the time without a reboot, so then I found out that since it was always explorer.exe, I could just end task on explorer.exe, delete/move/rename and then restart explorer.exe, but that got old too. And now I have mentioned 2-3 times in this thread that the issue is gone since deleting a key in the registry and rebooting twice.If the issue comes back, I will let everyone know here. But so far 2 days and hasn't happened again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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