Did u ever try to delete a file or a folder and got ‘Access Is Denied’ error? Or while copying a file it gives ‘The Source File May Be In Use’ error. These types of errors can occur due to many different reasons, maybe the file is being used by the operating system or some other program, or maybe you do not have administrator privileges.
If you get an “Access is Denied” error while accessing a folder then it means the administrator has not allowed you permission to access it. If you are not an Administrator then you will probably never be able to fix this error. But if you are an Administrator and receiving this problem then there is a software called Unlocker that is going to come in handy.
Unlocker is a small, free, and powerful software that lets you see which process is holding the lock on the file/folder and then helps you unlock it. After Installing this software you can simply right click the file/folder that is giving “Access is Denied” or “FIle May Be In Use” errors and then click on Unlocker.
A new window will now pop-up showing the processes as shown below. Now you can either unlock all of the processes or kill the process.
On the left of the ‘Kill Process’ button there is a dropdown menu where you can select Copy, Move, Rename, or Delete functions for a locked file.
This program is useful for the following types of errors,
- Cannot delete file: Access is denied
- There has been a sharing violation.
- The source or destination file may be in use.
- The file is in use by another program or user.
- Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Using Microsoft Support
There is also an alternative way using Microsoft support help for such errors, following MS steps will basically reset the file/folder settings.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810881
I frequently use the Unlocker software for quick solution, and I have personally never tried using the Microsoft support method. I hope you will also get rid if these errors using the above procedure, looking forward to hear feedbacks from you. 
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22 Comments
STUMBLED!
First time I have heard of this tool.
Thanks.
I’ve been using Unlocker for a couple years now, and I recommend it for anyone with the brains to use it. If you’re one of those folks that say “Oh, I don’t know much about computers” then you could cause some damage (or at least more troubles) with this, shutting down explorer.exe, for example.
@ Bill Vincent
I totally agree with you. Thanks for adding this precaution so others can know.
@Geoserv
Thanks for stumbling, I appreciate your support.
sad.. sad.. If you’ve waited this long to find out how to unlock your processes (and haven’t Googled it before) you don’t deserve to use the program..
Unlocker is in fact, the only tool I’ve found that can successfully perform this task (every time).
But as BV says, it can be dangerous if used incorrectly.
Windows itself uses a lot of files, and interrupting a Windows process by deleting one can cause major problems.
Unlocker should only be used when you have a file like a document, or a music file, etc… that you would “typically” be able to delete.
For newbies - say you are watching a video file, don’t like it & try to delete it. The video player may have that file locked for its use, preventing its deletion. You can clear this most times by playing another file, therefore releasing the first one so you can delete it. Maybe, though, you have to close the player program, to release the file before deleting it.
If you click on a video file, to open the video player you use, then that first file may be locked until you close the program, no matter how many other videos you play.
If it still won’t delete, then some other background process may have it locked (say, a screen-capture utility you clicked to get an image of the video) - this is where Unlocker comes in handy.
There really are ENDLESS possible reasons for the locked file.
So be cautious - it’s locked for a reason…
In the example given by the author, the screen image shows EXPLORER.EXE as the process, with a LOCKED file or folder in My Documents… it’s safe to assume he’s trying to delete a document or folder there - maybe Word still has the document open while trying to delete it… doesn’t work. But if you Unlock it, you can delete it, and Word will get confused. So again, be cautious.
Used this app, it works good but sometimes if file is not getting deleted, it should be left as it is and you could delete it after next restart of your computer.
@Rambo
Thanks for giving a caution to the users, I should have posted this warning in my post.
Unlocker doesn’t delete file names longer than 255 characters on windows XP.This I know for fact the only way I have found to remove veryfrakkenlongFilenames is to copy everything I want to keep from file then delete the whole file.I know sometimes that sucks but I wish I had a better way.
Have been using unlocker for ages and no doubt, it’s one of my MUST have app for windows .. TFS!
Thank man!
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thanks… good one..
Sounds good! So where can I get “Unlocker” for XP?
just used it ..i was so pissed untill i found this thanx
Thank you about your tutorial, that tips was can fix network slow transfer.
Thank you,
Best regards,
Indra
indra@yahoo.com
Thank you very much! I’ve wondered for years how to delete those stuff which cant be deleted.
Have any of you tried restarting? Usually if you try to delete the file as soon as you can after a reboot it works just fine. I’ve never had any trouble after a reboot before.
Unlocker isn’t portable, and it was flakey when I used it. Get killbox. If it can’t force-delete the file, it’ll delete it on reboot. Killbox also doesn’t need to be installed, as it’s just a standalone app.
I tried many options suggested to remove this mongrel file without any success. Not a confident user as yet, was unsure about using the suggested software. So I restarted my machine, f8 into safe mode, located file and sent to recycle bin, emptied bin and could not believe it, its gone! Restart again and the error file has really gone. Hope this helps others. Maybe you techo’s can check this and see why it works. I felt I just fluked it. Anyway thanks everyone for communicating ideas to help each other. Cheers
I have a whole folder filled whit files that can not be deleted. i have tried many different programs to delete them. unlocker & FileAssasin too. they didnt work. i have even tried some extreme erasing programs they did not work. so unlocker is god but sometimes it do not work.
Try using this tool to see if some malware or some unknown process is trying to lock your files, http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/analyzemanage-processes-auto-start-items-and-loaded-modules-in-windows/
You can also remove them permanently using this tool.
Please give answer to this querry
If you have long file names and can’t move or delete them, try to rename them to a shorter name as well as the $%# long folder name they are found in. Once you shorten the name past the Windows name character limit you can do what you want with the file. (I think the limit is 256 characters)
Unlocker rocks!! love it.
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[...] year, we reviewed an app called Unlocker that can unlock any locked file instantly. To unlock a file, it kills the Windows process that is [...]