Unable to delete folders (1 Viewer)

[Ari]

I'm in the process of rearranging my My Documents folder and need to move/add/delete certain folders. There are a few folders in My Pictures that I am unable to delete. There's a popup that says:
"Cannot delete xxxxx: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again."

The thing is, I'm not using any other program and there is only one profile on the computer and that is me, the admin. I'm able to move stuff from inside the folders so it's not a big deal but how do I go about deleting the folders?? They're empty but XP still won't let me delete them.

 

[Dustin Harrison]

A few things you can try:

1. if running XP go to start/run/msconfig
then go to the start up tab and de-select everything (or at least the things you don't recognize) When windows restarts you should be able to delete your file.

2. Or you can restart windows in safe mode. I believe you press F8 wile it's booting up. Then you should be able to delete your file.

3. If those don't work, then run the latest version of Ad aware. That should do it for you.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

 

[Dustin Harrison]

On second thought, just run the ad-aware first. It should take care of all your problems and it's free.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Go into the folder permissions and take ownership under your administrator account. Then try.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

It could be Windows Explorer stepping on its own toes. Since they contain pictures it's possible Explorer is trying to generate a thumbnail for the folder and won't "let go" so you can delete it.

 

[anthony_b]

Right click on the folder and go to properties and see if the "read only" box is checked. If so, un-check it.

 

[chris mcinroy]

make sure nuthing in that folder is running and make sure its contents arnt read only

 

[Ari]

Thanks for all the suggestions.....I've actually solved the problem on my own.

I rebooted the system and was finally able to delete. Problem solved but my frustrations with Microsoft continues.

 

[Scooter]

Dustin...I tried what you suggested and now I have no Restore Points anymore and a buncha stuff reconfigured itself.


Ummm.....how do I Undo all that?

 

[Kelvin Tucker]

Scooter - If you are refering to the msconfig suggestion, then you just rerun msconfig and select the "Normal Startup .." button and reboot.

Don't understand why anything would reconfigure itself, but each machine has a mind of it's own.

 

[Dustin Harrison]

Scooter, are you talking about the msconfig?

msconfig allows you to select which programs start up when your computer boots up. It has nothing to do with reconfiguring. So you have me scratching my head on that one.

 

[Hanson]

I think this is the problem. I've had this happen lots of times and usually either waiting it out or rebooting allows me to delete. Once I had to boot into MS-DOS to delete because it was still locked after rebooting.