Desktop shortcut probs

My mate has given me his laptop to try and get rid of 3 shortcuts he has on the desktop.
From what he tells me they are videos he has attempted to download from the internet and failed "so incomplete".
When trying to delete them with the right click delete method it states they cannot be removed as they are open/being used in/by another program. I have no idea what program they are open with, how do I find out so I can stop them.Or at best just remove the shortcuts.

He is running Vista home

Thanks

 

Can you remove them in safe mode? Maybe you can open up task manager and try to determine which processes are running as a result of these and end process and then remove.
If neither of those works, give killbox a try.
http://majorgeeks.com/Pocket_KillBox_d4709.html

 

Hey there,

Vista not my forte' yet...

Have you tried highlighting / selecting and shift+delete, this bypass's the recycle bin which maybe to small to hold the files, also check the properties see if there is a read only box clear this it may help...

Even something random like adding a file extension .avi on the end of the file name if it doesnt have one may help.

Check the permissions on the file.

G. luck l8r:wave

 

Many thanks, used unlocker 1,8,8 as suggested, all sorted now. Just as a point my anti virus flagged this prog as a threat, this is a false alert due to the nature of what the prog is designed to do I suppose. I installed it then done a virus scan and was ALL CLEAR.