File is in use delete

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To clarify, do you want to skip over the files that are in use, or are you trying to force a deletion of them? Or you need to wait for them to get accessible? This question is already answered, check this: stackoverflow. There is also a utility called "Unlocker" - emptyloop. More for investigation than general use, though. Show 2 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. Description There is no way to delete a file that is currently in use by another process.

Open FileMode. Open, FileAccess. ReadWrite, FileShare. Sleep ; file. Delete ; Update If you want to skip locked files you can do this. If for example I am deleting all temp files while the machine is running, and I keep Outlook open, the temp files that Outlook has will not be deleted until Outlook is closed. Therefore the program will continue to try to execute until Outlook is closed using this method. I would prefer to check if it is in use and skip it if it is in use.

The problem with this approach is that when IsFileLocked returns false , meaning that the file was not locked, it may end up being locked again for a brief period by the very code that has performed the verification. This can be easily observed on Windows.

Add a comment. Collect ; GC. WaitForPendingFinalizers ; if Directory. Exists this. Delete this. Bartosz Gawron Bartosz Gawron 1 1 silver badge 6 6 bronze badges. To successfully delete this file, try following the steps. Try waiting a few moments and then deleting the file again. Although it isn't typical, sometimes a program may encounter an issue, which makes it slower to close. In this instance, the program may still be using the file you're attempting to delete, which generates this error message.

Find the application that is currently using the file, and select "End task". Using Command Prompt for deletion is sometimes more efficient, and you definitely should give it a try. Usually, when you come across a locked file, you can simply restart your device to unlock it.

If it doesn't work, you can boot into Safe Mode to unlock and delete the file. While in Safe Mode, use File Explorer to locate and delete the files that were previously locked, then simply restart your device as you would normally to exit Safe Mode. There are many third-party applications that can help you with this problem and delete locked files.

It can help to clean up junk files and wipe the whole data. Click "Add Files" to select the files you need to shred, or you can drag files, documents, images, music files, etc. Step 4. The program will immediately shred all the selected files. When it finishes, click "Done". So be careful of what you delete if you're not sure of the consequences. There are times you mistakenly deleted a needed file on your Windows 11, 10, 8. You can recover deleted files with easy-to-use data recovery software.

It is the best file recovery software that allows you to:. When the scanning has finished, select the deleted files you want to recover. Type resmon. This opens an application called Resource Monitor. Click the CPU tab. Click End process. A confirmation message will appear. Click End process to confirm. Delete the file from its location. Return to the folder where the file is located, select the file, then press Del. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

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