Cannot remove folder? It is being used by another person or program… but Who??

by rahul 9/17/2008 1:32:30 PM

The following dialog box is not very uncommon. You might have seen this while trying to delete some file/folder from your machine. How do you deal with it?

image

Well, the main challenge here is that the dialog box doesn’t tell you which person or program is causing the issue. So, let’s start with finding that out first…

Bullet Download Process Explorer

Bullet Since we want to find out “Who” has this handle… Click on Find –> Find Handle or DLL, and type in the file name. In our case it is Module07

Bullet So, in our case here was the output…

image

Bullet When you double click on the process name, it will take you to the actual File in the lower pane (CTRL + L)

image

Bullet Right click on the selected row above and choose Close Handle. You may get a prompt like the following. Click Yes.

image

Bullet Now, try deleting the problematic folder again. SUCCESS Thumbs-up !

Hope this helps, Wave
Rahul


Quote of the day:
A good listener is a good talker with a sore throat. - Katharine Whitehorn


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Troubleshooting | Tips and Tricks

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