It hit me the other day that I have been remiss in sharing a great application with you. I have been using it for well over five years and have never mentioned it. So here we go today.
If you have used a Windows PC regularly for more than a few weeks you have run into this issue. You know the frustrating feeling you get when you go to delete a file, group of files or a folder and you cannot. You will get some type of notification telling you that it cannot be deleted. You can right click, delete or try selecting it and pressing your delete key or even dragging it directly to the recycle bin, but it just does not matter.
Sometimes the notice will inform you that another program is using it, there is a sharing violation, etcetera. You can try my old standby trick to delete them. Wait for a few minutes and try to delete them again. Sometimes, but rarely, this will work.
This is usually caused by some other program using the file for some known or unknown reason. For instance, I have had the issue when working on a Word file typing a document. I did not need the file and went to delete it from my computer. It gave the notification that it was being used by another application. I searched and found, yes, I left it open in Word and did not close the file. In that case it makes sense and once I close the Word program, the file is released and then can be deleted.
However, way too often for me, I cannot figure out what has the file under its control. I can look and search and cannot find why the stinking file will not go away!
Now for the application I mentioned earlier. It is appropriately enough named “Unlocker.” It does just that. If you have a file/folder that needs to be removed and you cannot delete it, Unlocker will. After it is installed you will have a new command available when you right click on a file that says, “Unlocker.” Click it and choose between “No Action,” “Delete,” “Rename” or “Move.” Choose the one you want to use, usually Delete, and click OK. It will work for a few seconds and either delete it or ask you if you would like it deleted the next time you start your computer.
You can download it from MajorGeeks here, “rd.dblclx.com/unlocker192.” Oh, did I mention that it is free? So it will not delete any money from you.
