Ron
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
Posts: 4
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 Sun Dec 17, 2006 3:57 pm Subject : Deleting Undeletable Files |
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Many times when trying to remove an unwanted program, especially a piece of adware or spyware, you'll receive the error message "Cannot delete file: Access is denied 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".
Windows XP
In Windows XP, there are a couple ways to remove an undeleteable file, a manual way.
1. Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and Press Enter to open a Command Prompt window
2. Leave the Command Prompt window open, but proceed to close all other open programs
3. Click on Start, Run and type TASKMGR.EXE and press Enter to start Task Manager
4. Click on the Processes tab, click on the process named Explorer.exe and click on End Process.
5. Minimize Task Manager but leave it open
6. Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory where the file is located. To do this, use the CD command. You can follow the example below.
Example: to change to the Windows\System32 directory you would enter the following command and Press Enter
cd \windows\system32
7. Now use the DEL command to delete the offending file. Type DEL <filename> where <filename> is the file you wish to delete.
Example: del undeletable.exe
8. Use ALT-TAB to go back to Task Manager
9. In Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the Windows shell.
10. Close Task Manager |
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