how do i delete an empty file that says its in use?

Barcardi

i have this file, "new folder (2)" that i cannot delete. It is completely empty as far as i can figure out (0 KB inside) yet when i delete it it gives me this message "cannot delete new folder (2) is in use by another person or program"

nothing else is running and only i am connected to this computer, any ideas how to get rid of it?

embrik

Get Unlocker
It's free, and it works awesomely.

MuddBudd

Sounds like a virus of some kind.

Veevee

I've had windows do this to me occasionally. I usually just hide the folder so I can't see it and forget about it until I do a format, then the problem is fixed.

Or do the Unlocker route.

Fristle

The underlying cause of this is a bug in Windows Explorer (the GUI component of the Windows desktop environment); it's been around forever too. Explorer.exe has a coding flaw, where it requests a handle to a file with the CreateFile() API and then doesn't follow up with a CloseHandle() routine when it is done accessing the file. So the operating system thinks the file is still in use and denies anyone the ability to delete or modify the file.

The fix that Unlocker performs for you is to enumerate the handles left open by Explorer.exe, find the one you want to "unlock" and call CloseHandle() on it. You can also do this yourself with SysInternals Process Explorer.

b0bd0d

Okay, lemme just hijack this real quick and ask ya question. What do you do if the filename isn't a valid file name? I was coding something in assembly and I made a pointer mistake. Instead of writing the filename, it wrote some random bytes of data as the file name. Really random bytes. Couple spaces, couple undisplayable characters, the Yen sign, this thing ¤. It never did get deleted. What coulda I done?

Janin

b0bd0d wrote: »

Okay, lemme just hijack this real quick and ask ya question. What do you do if the filename isn't a valid file name? I was coding something in assembly and I made a pointer mistake. Instead of writing the filename, it wrote some random bytes of data as the file name. Really random bytes. Couple spaces, couple undisplayable characters, the Yen sign, this thing ¤. It never did get deleted. What coulda I done?

If it doesn't have a '/' character in it, you could a UNIX shell for Windows. Bash and ksh are popular choices.

Typhus

I had this problem a few weeks ago, If you don't want to download anything you can try just booting up in safe mode and deleting the folder sometimes works if there actually is a program in your taskbar using the folder) or make a note of the exact file path and boot up the PC into dos and delete it from there. (don't do this without knowing exactly what you're doing, as it is *super* easy to wipe everything)

Hope this helps

Revolutionary

Does this help you?

whuppins

The above link is great, but I just wanted to add that 99% of the time, you don't need to fool around with command prompts.

Super-easy way that doesn't require you to download any software and works almost every time:

1.) Ctrl-Alt-Del -> Task Manager

2.) Processes tab, select explorer.exe and End Process

3.) File -> New Task (Run)...

4.) type 'explorer' and click OK

After that, you should be able to delete the file.