checking which program uses file

Hello,

I have a file on my computer being used by an unknown program, not malware.
Is there a way to find out which progam it is in use by?

cheers, dieter

 

sorry,

I forgot, I use windows XP home edition SP3.

 

My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types and scroll down until you find the file's three letter extension. Click on that and click the Change button - but don't change it of course unless you want it changed.

 

that's not exactly what I mean.

I installed an accounting program today which I wanted to uninstall.
In the application data exists an error.txt file solely belonging to this program, but during the uninstall procedure the proces is stopped with the message that another program is using this error.txt file. It has to be closed first before I will be able to proceed with further uninstallation.
But I have no idea which program this can be.
I closed all applications with no effect.

How can I solve this?

 

Well .txt files are normally used by Notepad, so check in Task Manager > Processes tab whether notepad.exe is running. If it is then right click it and click End Process. You can ignore any warnings in this case.

 

notepad was not running

 

When I litteraly close all applications, including internet security and when I try to remove the error.txt file, I still get the message that it cannot be removed because it is in use by a program.

 

It's one of the other processes on the Processes tab, but without knowing which processes this program launches it's a guessing game. You could simply reboot and it should be OK, though some residual files and reg entries will be left behind. Anything obviously related to the program could then be deleted manually. Or you could try a system restore to a day before the program was installed.

 

reboot didn't work either, untill I tried windows safe mode.
I then could remove the file, problem solved.

Thanks for your help.

 

Thanks for the feedback. As uninstall was incomplete there will be some residual files which you could delete, but they won't cause any problems if not removed. You could also run CCleaner to help tidy up.

 

I always use revo uninstaller to get rid of register and file residue. Very effective.

 

So do I, but having to reboot into safe mode has thwarted Revo from doing its own cleanup.

 

I only removed the error file in safe mode.
I uninstalled the program with revo after that in normal mode so I presume all is fine.

 

I have a similar problem with Word docs (that I abitrarily cannot access) because I get the same error message --- that the file is being used by another application. Sometimes you can have good luck by going into Task Manager and closing any application that might possibly be related to the problem. Then, reboot and try to access or delete the file again.

Also, can you manually delete that particular file from the C:\ drive? That might solve the problem as well.

 

http://www.xentrik.net/software/unlockme.html

 

Hi

UnlockMe sounds like a decent program.

I've always used Unlocker, which is available here at MG. It's always worked well for me in order to delete pesky files that won't delete/move/etc. by normal methods.

Link:

http://majorgeeks.com/Unlocker_d4660.html

 

I have had the same good experience with unlocker, but on a few rare occasions File Assassin is a good last resort measure. Never hurts to have this around...

http://majorgeeks.com/FileASSASSIN_d5416.html

By the time I've run into something unlocker can't find a handle for, or cannot cope with it, I can usually be sure I don't need the freakin' thing to start with...

Enter File Assassin...