Find what is locking a file

Now, go to the extraction site on your computer. Wait for a while as Process Explorer will find the processes associated with the string you have entered. Wait for a while as the Process Explorer will list the processes which are using the file. When the search is complete, click on the process in the process tab. Your problem should be solved. Add a comment.

Active Oldest Votes. InteropServices; using System. Diagnostics; using System; using System. Unable to determine file locker. Length, resources, 0, null, 0, null ; if res! Add Process. GetProcessById processInfo[i]. Failed to get size of result. IIS This call accesses the registry. Granting other-than-minimal permissions to the IIS user is a security risk.

Eric J. Is there a way to make this work for remote processes? You would need to resort to one of the other, less accurate methods posted here. See stackoverflow. Only solution that doesn't require 3rd party tools or undocumented API calls.

Should well be the accepted answer. I found that it had to be run with elevated privileges in a lot of circumstances otherwise it fails when trying to get the list of processes locking a file. Show 15 more comments. It is very complex to invoke Win32 from C. Start ; tool. GetProcessById int. Parse match. Uwe Keim Gennady Zabrodsky Gennady Zabrodsky. I've updated Gennady's answer with the change.

You can't redistribute handle. I disagree - it has no complexity when invoking win32 api from c. This is really slow for me. Did anyone find a faster way of doing this? Especially for multiple files? Show 5 more comments. Odds are that the files are owned by an account that no longer exists or can no longer be verified to exist because of changing Active Directory trust settings. Apparently, this backup process leaves enough of a "ghost like file.

However, I kept getting the error message:. Close any programs that might be using this file and try again. I was having trouble finding out the process that locked my epmd. So, I thought of giving it a try and it worked so, this can be another option :.

I have created a small utility ShowWhatProcessLocksFile which shows what processes lock a selected file or folder f. It integrates into the File Explorer's context menu to allow selecting a file or folder. Note: the application requires admin permissions. If for some reasons you don't like my program, I recommend you to try Lock Hunter. Find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows.

How can I find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows? For instance, when trying to delete a folder, Windows reports this: The action can't be completed because the folder is open in another program Happens the same with a file, but how do I find out what program or application is currently using it and preventing me from deleting the file or folder? Asked By: leeand Answered By: Mehper C. Answered By: formerly frustrated excel user.

Answered By: Sri Reddy. Answered By: PolarBear. Remove the write protection from a USB flash disk [duplicate].