Overcoming "It is being used by another person or program." [closed]

Question

Is there a way to unlock Windows files without downloading a utility?

I have a few files on my Windows XP C: drive that are very old and very useless. When I try to delete these files I get the following message:

 Cannot delete FILENAME.zip: It is being used by another person or program  Close any programs that might be using the file and try again. 

No one is accessing this file. No program is using it currently. Windows has screwed up the file locking mechanism.

Is there a way to delete this file without downloading someone's unlocking utility? I find the sites offering these programs to be a tad sketchy.

How could you force the file to unlock from within a program? I'm competent in Java, Perl, and Ruby, but I haven't seen anything among their libraries that would aid me here.

Answer 1

I've successfully used Process Explorer to find out which process has the file open. It saves a reboot that may not fix the problem anyway.

In process explorer: Find > Handle or DLL... then search for the name of the folder/file, then double click one of the search results. It'll select a handle in the main window, which you can right click and close.

Answer 2

Try downloading "Unlocker". Google it and take my words that it doesn't have any worm/spyware/virus. It is pretty cool utility and works great. Give it a try.