Cannot delete..

Tyler Gagnon · 12-13-2004, 05:46 PM

i am trying to delete something my son downloaded and everytime i try, a message comes up saying it is being used by another person or program, I have tried everything, Any suggestions.

Rob Silver · 12-13-2004, 05:51 PM

Restart system, that will free up the file.

SethH · 12-13-2004, 06:23 PM

That may or may not work. If it does not, you'll need to start in safe-mode to delete it.

Jeff Jacobson · 12-13-2004, 07:21 PM

I had a situation once where even restarting in Safe Mode didn't work. In that I had to open a command prompt and close "Explorer" in the Task Manager. Then in the command prompt, I used the DEL command to delete the file.

Joseph DeMartino · 12-13-2004, 08:47 PM

Safe mode/command prompt only is the other way to do this. It prevents the GUI from loading entirely and lets you work at a command prompt. You just need to make note of the complete path to the offending file.

Joe

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Glenn Overholt · 12-14-2004, 01:03 AM

Another method - since it is going because another program is using it, then stop the other program!

Even if you don't know what it is, do a 3-finger salute. Start at the bottom of the list. Write the name down and stop it. Then see if you can delete it. If not, repeat.

You write these down because if you stop a critical file, Windows will crash (duh)! Then you can reboot and know not to stop that program from running.

I do like booting into DOS and doing it that way, and get the file attributes first, or just clear all of them. If the file is in a directory maybe you can give the directory a new name! When it reboots it won't be there! Ha, ha! Gottcha!

Also check to see that your autoexec.bat file hasn't been changed to include that program in your start-up. Check your start-up menu too.

Glenn

Jordan_Brulotte · 12-14-2004, 02:59 AM

I'd do one thing first. It sounds to me like spyware. Download Ad-aware, or Spy-bot if you do not have them. Most spyware will auto load on startup and will not show up in the task manager either. This makes it a huge pain to get rid of. Both of those programs are excellent and FREE!

Install one of the 2, update it, then run it. If it can't remove all of it, it may ask you to reset. If it does it will scan again when it boots up, but this time getting rid of the garbage before it can load.

Mike Fassler · 12-14-2004, 09:52 AM

what is the software you are having issues removing? try and find it in the process list and stop the process, you should be able to remove it no problem then.

brentl · 12-14-2004, 10:55 AM

Download "who lock me" to find out what program is holding onto it.

Brent

Ted Lee · 12-14-2004, 02:16 PM

couple other ideas.

run "msconfig" and see what items are in your startup. see if your program is listed, if so deactivate it from startup

find a program called "end it all 2" - it's sort of hard to find now, but it's out there. it will close any non-essential programs.

what os are you using? if it's xp, see if you can use the system restore utility to set your pc back to before it was affected