How do you find what application is using a rescource?

Energize · 22 Jun 2011 at 19:33

All too often on windows I see the unhelpful error message "this folder cannot be moved/deleted/whatever because it is being used by another program", how on earth do I find out what program is using it?

tntcoder · 22 Jun 2011 at 19:37

Sysinternals tools - the Handle tool or Process Explorer can be used to search open file handles and tie them back to a process.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655

Energize · 22 Jun 2011 at 19:44

Thanks, one only wonders why this is not integrated into windows.

chaosophy · 23 Jun 2011 at 18:20

Energize said:
Thanks, one only wonders why this is not integrated into windows.

Not tried it but....

C:\Windows\system32>openfiles

INFO: The system global flag 'maintain objects list' needs
to be enabled to see local opened files.
See Openfiles /? for more information.

Deception · 23 Jun 2011 at 21:22

Get a program called unlocker, it will tell you which process is being used and also let you kill the process and delete the file.