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

thanks for all those thoughtful replies! I restarted yesterday and things went much better for quite a while. It seems it's pretty much the temp files, but what mystifies me is how it can move several then just one at at time. Well, anyway, whatever. I got that part of my project done for now. If this comes up again, I'll have a few options to try thanks to this thread!

-boc

Know what bigoldcars? I don’t think they’ll address it. When it says the file or folder is open in another program, the other program is most likely one of the other instances of Windows Explorer. (Forum contributor Taylor42 proposed a bait and switch ploy on Nov 30: When a file or folder won’t budge, “choose another subfolder in the directory list and press "Ctrl-C" to act as if you are going to copy the folder.  This somehow changes the focus of Windows Explorer away from the folder you can't delete”, etc. It works only slightly less reliably than the “Explorer.exe kill/run in task manager” strategy… and is an easy try if you’re juggling a lot of windows on your screen.)

I don’t think they check this forum. They just set it up like a playpen… or bullpen when Mafury’s around (with my respects, Mafury)…  where we can interact creatively… cuz we don’t have hang-all else to do. There is no Microsoft moderator in this forum… or at least none has made his/her-self known. (Hello? Anybody?) I once did a search of Microsoft support videos to see if there was some acknowledgement of this issue… (have they even called this a “known issue”? I don’t recall seeing it… as it drives millions of us off the pier.) There was a video of a rather self-approving programmer promising all sort of new Windows Explorer goodies... as if it was gonna be the latest Indiana Jones movie… you know, goodies underneath that big green graph with superfluous details that you get to watch in Windows 8 as your big file meanders towards its destination… time remaining 3 hours 25 minutes. In future we’ll have Muzak during our file transfers as we watch our lives pass before our eyes. No mention of fixing this issue that didn’t used to be broke. This notwithstanding, I do appreciate Microsoft.

Anyway, to cut to the chase before they send their drone after me, you may know the following already. But in case you don’t, it might lighten your copying chores. I’m just a translator by the way, not a tech person. I’ve been through DOS and then many iterations of Windows, so difficulty has been my instructor. Do you know the old Gizmo Best Free Programs site? They’ve been doing really fine reviews for years, and their recommended programs are superb, and clean … or if there really isn’t a junkwareless download of a good program, they’ll tell you what to watch out for. Use their download site links.

They give their best free file copy utilities at the link below, and they really should save you a lot of time. I’ve already used Fastcopy and Terracopy. Both excellent, seriously superfast, and easy to manage on a screen. http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-file-copy-utility.htm

If you ever want some other quick piece of specialty software with sound comparative recommendations and testing, start your search with the word Gizmo. Example, search “Gizmo best free drive cloning software”… or pdf writer software or photo manager software, etc., etc. Gee, I hope if you do try them, they won’t disappoint. All my best bigoldcars

open up an explorer window and in the search type in %temp%.

it will bring up a couple folders named "temp"

delete the files in this folder.

if some of the files have a prompt that follows saying "cant be deleted", then just skip those files.

after that you should be good to go.

you bet, wakenight-thanks for posting your workaround. I have found that to be the only workaround that works for me. Thanks also for your restart idea. 

I'm updating my music collection which is huge and there's no rhyme nor reason why/when this happens. I'm moving a bunch of albums so they are in folders and sometimes I can move about 8 or so and other times just one at a time and I get this dreaded error. Been leaving my task manager open when I do this.  I'm moving folders across 3 windows. Thankfully, the typed in explorer.exe will hold so I don't have to type it in every time (that would really be bad!). Then, I get a "This PC" window which I can leave open but close to get it out of the way, then I can finally move a folder, sometimes 2 or more!

Yeah, didn't want to get nasty to Microsoft here, but I can relate well to those who are also experiencing pain due to  this -- it really is annoying and amazingly bad. Can't hardly believe there's no solution, but this workaround is the closest thing that works for something that has no solution.

Ultimately, imho, instead of making new versions, OS's, etc. how about fixing what exists first, Microsoft and everybody else who creates software!

Thanks for the tips, and I'm subscribed on this thread so hopefully there'll be an eventual solution.

-boc