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.
I read what you wrote. And I read your last comment also.
Maybe I'm just dumb, but what you're saying doesn't help me.
You are describing my situation exactly... I'm having problems with my music files in Explorer.
But it still happens when I have my music software (Windows Media Player) closed, and I am in Details view in Windows Explorer. There are no thumbnail views anywhere and it still gives me trouble.
There's two other ones in windows explorer, as I mentioned: the 'details' and 'preview' panes, at the bottom and right sides of the window respectively. Both show information about the selected object, and only the selected object.
the 'preview' pane only shows previews of individual files, but the details pane does folders as well. specifically, an equivalent thumbnail to 'large icons', and only after you click on the folder. Which makes that one particularly bad, since it only starts to load the thumbnail when you click on the object you're trying to delete; assuming you're already on a 'small icons' view type.
I can't promise that it's the same in windows 8, but in windows 7 you can enable or disable both of them by clicking on 'organize' at the top left and going down to 'layout'
Killing both of those AND being on details view fixed the problem completely for me, and turning the details pane back on caused it to start again, so...
I read what you wrote. And I read your last comment also.
Maybe I'm just dumb, but what you're saying doesn't help me.
You are describing my situation exactly... I'm having problems with my music files in Explorer.
But it still happens when I have my music software (Windows Media Player) closed, and I am in Details view in Windows Explorer. There are no thumbnail views anywhere and it still gives me trouble.
Wow, looked through all these suggestions... none are helpful. I agree with the majority here, FIX IT! I never have this problem on a Mac. Please, if someone finds a real solution, I'm ready to hear it!!
I love it. I detail exactly what's causing the problem AND how to avoid it in the post before this, and you don't even bother to read it :P
As an addendum to what I said earlier, my personal speculation is this only happens the FIRST time windows explorer has to load the thumbnails in question, because it hasn't got them cached in thumbs.db yet. Trick is, it seems to store them on a folder-by-folder basis, and even then only when the preview actually shows up on screen.
Say it's your music library, you've never really used anything but player software to go through the contents. You're going through and trying to clean it up. Any of the following things will then lock the folder:
You're set to an icon size that has previews, and scroll down to where the folder is visible for the first time.
You're set to a small icon size and click on the folder, bringing up the preview in the details pane.
You've already brought up the top level folder preview somehow previously, but not the subfolder. You then enter the folder, and one of the above happens with the subfolder. (each folder has its own thumbs.db!)
You've already triggered the subfolder preview previously, but haven't been inside it. You go into the subfolder, and trigger one of the above with one or more of the files. Or the latter case, but with the preview pane instead of the details pane.
In short, there are three ways to avoid the issue:
Have previously browsed the folders and triggered their preview thumbnails, so it doesn't have to load the files to get them.
Disable preview thumbnails entirely, which is harder to undo then the last option:
Turn off *all* options that can generate a preview thumbnail: the details pane, the preview pane, and setting your 'view' size to 'small icons', 'list', or 'details'. You *must* do all three, or one of the others will trigger the problem again.
Wow, looked through all these suggestions... none are helpful. I agree with the majority here, FIX IT! I never have this problem on a Mac. Please, if someone finds a real solution, I'm ready to hear it!!
