Apps - Process Explorer
When a file is in use by another program wouldn’t it be nice to know what program it is instead of randomly shutting down applications until you find the right one?
Well, today’s your lucky day.
Download the Windows SysInternals Process Explorer program and save it somewhere sensible like C:\ProcessExplorer\ There’s no installer, so where you save it is where you’ll be running it from.
Run the application, then go to Find -> Find Handle or DLL… and then type in the filename for the file that’s being used by another program.
Click search, and you’ll get a list of applications that are accessing the file.
Now you know which application you need to close to make changes to your file.
SysInternals Process Explorer is pretty sweet, but for simple “hey, unlock this” stuff, take a look at the creatively-named Unlocker. It ties into the shell so that when you try to delete a file and it tells you “This file is in use by another application,” Unlocker automatically runs and finds the offending handle, giving you options to do something about it.
Also, it’s completely free :)
— Colin Aug 21, 08:59 PM #
