How come my files (not locked files to run the computer) get locked and
how to scan them or delete them?
Files can get locked for many reasons; the most common being that some other
program simply has the file open for some reason.
In this video excerpt from a recent Ask Leo! webinar,
Iâll discuss some of the ramifications of locked files, how to tell whoâs doing
the locking, and what steps are appropriate to deal with it.
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Transcript
How come my files (not locked files to run the computer) get
locked and how to scan them or delete them?
It depends on how youâre determining how they are locked. The scenario that
I actually have an article on is this concept of a file being in use.
When one application has a file open, depending on how that application has
opened the file, it can actually cause the file to be locked. It can be locked
in several different ways, but the most basic way is that the file cannot be
deleted until that program actually lets go of it.
In this particular case, you can see that I bring upâŠweâve got MoveOnBoot
here; thereâs another article I believe that will show you whoâs using it and
letâs see, âWho can I see is using the file?â Yea, thatâs the one I was looking
for.
This uses Process Explorer (or procexp) and you can use a âFindâ on Process
Explorer on the filename you are having trouble deleting and it will show you
all of the applications that are using it. So in this example on the screen
here, I took a look at the time for personal.pst which at the time was my email
folder that I was using with Outlook. And for just searching for personal.pst in
procexp, it showed me that Outlook.exe was the program file open and that I
could close Outlook.exe and of course, the file was no longer being reference by
anybody and I could do whatever I wanted to it.
I believe my assistant Mark has a favorite utility that he keeps pointing at
and if he types it in here real quick before Iâm done with the question, Iâll
mention it. Basically, there are several different applications that will
attempt to identify whoâs got a file open and in some cases, are able to unlock
the file forcefully. Unlocker Assistant is the name of the tool.
Theyâre able to unlock the file forcibly from underneath the program that
happens to have it open so that the file can then be deleted or closed. It may
very well confuse that program that thought it had it open, but in most cases,
if youâve come to this kind of situation, thatâs not necessarily a bad place to
be because clearly youâre running in to some kind of a problem.
But in general, programs that have files open, the important thing to
understand is what program is it that has the file open; is it a program you
recognize? Should it be using that file? If it is, you probably want to leave it
alone. If itâs not, then you probably want to take some additional and more
forceful steps.
And when you say, ââŠhow to scan them or delete them,â Iâm not necessarily sure what
you mean by scan. If youâre concerned about your anti-virus program not being
able to scan it, I would probably suggest you look into another anti-virus
program because as it turns out, there areâŠmost anti-virus programs out there
now make use of the same facilities as the backup software uses that allows
them to at least read the contents of a file while itâs being used. It says
âvolume shadow copyâ; I think it is.
So that file, even though it might be in use, can be backed up and that same
technology can be used by the anti-virus tool to at least scan the contents of
the files and understand whether or not there are viruses inside them.
Leo, in the last two paragraphs of the above article, you talk about the ability of an anti-virus software to scan a âlockedâ file. If, instead, the files were encrypted, would an anti-virus software still be able to scan them effectively or at all? Or should/must the user decrypt the files first? ThanksâŠ
17-Apr-2012
More than one times I got files that cannot be deleted, moved or renamed. The only way that I found to delete them, is to delete them in Safety Mode.
I am running Windows XP. I have had a problem with mp4 and quicktime files becoming locked even when they havenât been opened by a player. I use Unlocker but if you are renaming many files it becomes a long process to unlock each one. After research on the web I found my major problem to be Windows Live Picture Gallery. After uninstalling and removing itâs traces from the registry I very rarely experience these files locking anymore.
Is there a way to âunlockâ all of the files (except system files). In WIN 7 Ultimate I still encounter âyou do not have permission to see these filesâ Why not? It is my computer! It could even be the pictures folder or a file on one of my networked PCâs. (all with Win7)
@Cbxturbo
Sometimes Windows can get overly aggressive in protecting files from being changed. This article explains how to change the permissions for files.
How do I gain access to files that Windows says I donât have permission to access?