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How do I delete a 'locked' file?

Fresh3 days ago
Mar 15, 202654233 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

On Windows XP, when I try and delete a specific file it says: Cannot delete blah.blah: Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use. How can I go around this warning and delete it anyway?

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Fix for: How do I delete a 'locked' file?

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To successfully delete a locked file, you will need to identify the process which has locked the file. You need to exit the process first and then delete the file. To know which process has locked a file you need a tool such as Microsoft Sysinternals' Process Explorer (PE). Once you have PE installed ... Click the Find menu, and choose Find Handle or DLL ... Type the file name (name of the file which is locked by some process.) After typing the search phrase, click the Search button You should …

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