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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
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.
That didn't solve the problem. That box is not checked.
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.
This was my problem... However, Excel had not crashed... it had been shut down properly. Once I killed the MSExcel process in Task Manager (Process Tab) I was able to move the folder.
Windows 8 Sucks... but I'm even more scared of the FREE Windows 10 upgrade...
I have been using "unlocker", it works great but occasionally Unlocker needs to unlock or delete the file on the next boot
I tried several suggestions from this thread and an older, locked thread that dated back to 2010. One of the suggestions there (from 2010) was to empty the recycle bin. I did that and was finally able to move a folder. My OS is windows 8.1 I installed a couple months ago, and the problem cropped up just this past week a couple times.
