This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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
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.
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.
Thank You - Thank You - Thank You !!! It works. My problem was renaming files. Now I can rename them and I do not get the constant " The action can't be completed because the folder etc"
Try this:
Right click on the folder with the "locked" files, choose "properties" and see if the box "read-only" is checked. If it is, uncheck it and that's it! Worked great for me on several occasions.
So glad you got it! As I've understood it, this thread was originally principally addressing a Win 8 and 8.1 problem with temp files. Files and folder that had been properly closed couldn't be moved or killed because the system was still holding on to their temp files... (a problem I'd never had in Win 95, 98, XP or Vista, the only OS's I am familiar with). In that particular case, relaunching explorer.exe cleared them out. This was a really chronic annoyance for ages... and then suddenly (again I can only speak for myself) the problem evaporated. Some update along the way must have finally addressed the glitch. There's a panoply of other factors that can cause similar behavior, and always have... e.g. exceeding bin capacity, programs that generate their own temp files like Copernic, that also indexes files and folders. So the early solutions offered here are possibly losing relevance, except for folks with Win 8.* who aren't receiving updates. So it's great to see solutions added, such as yours, for people who are drawn here for completely different scenarios. My best.
I emptied my recycle bin and then tried the "End Task - Run New" Task method. It did not solve problem. The solution was to "unindex" the folder and then delete it.
