the action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program

Anonymous
2013-03-21T10:22:13+00:00

this is annoying

the files or folders in question are not open in another program, windows is just refusing to let them be moved or deleted due a recent action ie: photographs moved elsewhere etc

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2013-03-21T10:43:05+00:00

This may also be helpful:

Open Windows explorer.

Click ‘Organize -> Folder and search options’ (or ‘View -> Folder options’).

Select the ‘View’-tab.

In the ‘Advanced settings’ window, disable ‘Launch folder windows in a separate process’.

You may need to force restart all explorer instances (via task manager) or reboot your computer if the setting is not applied immediately.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-12-09T08:48:05+00:00

    Its been years and it's still very annoying. MS please do something.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-12-08T14:49:30+00:00

    Only 3 years old? Heck, I've been on a thread regarding a simple Outlook issue for FIVE years. And IT always answers, "That would be a great idea! I'll pass that on!" How nice to be a monopoly.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-12-03T19:11:02+00:00

    it's like herpes..  it rears it's ugly head about once per month or when you get stressed out..  should be an easy fix, but NO!!!  let's get trump to make windows great again!!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-12-03T00:47:17+00:00

    This thread is 3 years old, and the problem is still present. With hundreds of people signing in and actually commenting, there must be tens of thousands of other people viewing this thread looking for a solution where there is none.

    I encountered this problem again today, but it wasn't my first time. I've run into this countless times going back as far as I can remember with Windows - at least a decade. Why don't the Microsoft engineers visit this thread and fix this bug? This is one of the most active Microsoft threads I've seen. Aren't there any flags for threads that receive above a certain number of replies or "I have this problem too?"

    The "Answer" given in the thread byMuhammad Adeel Javaid did not work for me, and clearly, it isn't working for many other people. Who decided that this was the "answer?"

    The workaround of closing other MS Office apps might seem easy, but when you're in the middle of working on several documents across multiple Office applications in an Enterprise setting, it's a serious workflow disruption, because now I have to go back, find all those documents in whichever folders they were in, open them up, and figure out where I left off and what I was doing.

    Microsoft needs to fix this bug once and for all.

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