There are two ways to easily unlock a locked file in Windows. A locked file is when you try to delete a file or unplug a USB device, but a warning message appears. Most of the messages that appears are like these:

• Access denied.
• 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.
• Cannot delete file: It is being used by another person or program.
• Cannot delete Folder: It is being used by another person or program.
• The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
• Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

The two ways in which you can kill a process both involve using a small and nifty software, but don’t worry both of them are free.

The first one is using the popular Unlocker program. Just download and install, and that’s it. Now to use it just right click on the file that you can’t delete because it is locked or even a USB drive that you can’t unplug, then choose Unlocker. That’s it, just kill or shut down the process that is keeping the file/folder locked.

The second one is called the File & Folder Unlocker. After downloading the file, just double-click it to run the program. No installation is needed, and it can run on a flash drive. This program lists all the running processes on your computer so you can kill or eliminate the program that is stopping you from modifying or deleting a file or folder.

Just head over to their websites to view sample screen shots of the program.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Quick Tips.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.