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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
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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.
Close all open programs and try to delete the folder. If the problem persists, restart your computer in Safe Mode and try to delete the folder from there.
An application that opens a file then crashes (not seen on the desktop but still in memory) can leave the file in an open state. The file is locked so no other applications can access it. Open Process Explorer (preferred, get from Sysinternals area on Microsoft website) or Windows Task Manager and see if you can find the application that opened that file. Kill the (crashed) application then the open file should be released and you can then delete it. All without a reboot.
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This isn't annoying, it's infuriating. It happens all the time. For no reason that I can find or fix. My computer wasn't launching folder windows in a separate process and it still does this. It wasn't a problem in XP. If I have problems with my car's tires, I don't want to be checking the tire pressure every 10 miles and having to monkey around with inflating and deflating them all the time. Similarly, I don't want to do the **** with Safe Mode and looking for crashed processes. I want my OS to work properly.
Just like the constant constant constant "Not Responding" hangs in 7 and 8 that drive me crazy. And it's not the computer, it's the OS, because every single stinking machine I use that runs 7 or 8 does it.
Just like the fact that Task Manager was something you could depend on in XP. You pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del and up it popped. Not in Windows 8, no siree bob. Sometimes it takes up to a minute for it to open, often only after I repeat the key combination a couple of dozen times. And Task Manager does something in 8 that it never did in XP: It hangs! I get (Not Responding) with the Task Manager too in Windows 8! That leaves you with nothing but having to force a restart.
Windows 8 STINKS STINKS STINKS. Microsoft STINKS STINKS STINKS. Whoever had the idiot fool notion that 7 or 8 is an improvement over XP is an idiot fool. There's no better advertisement for Mac OS or Linux than Windows 8. I bought a Toshiba laptop that was running Windows Vista and I finally got fed up with that piece of dreck and planned to replace it with Linux, but then my wife found out that we could upgrade to Win 8 for $40 and told me to do it. I made the mistake of listening to her. Every daily frustration with Windows 8 puts me a little bit closer to going over to Linux.
