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My Windows 7 is doing this recently. From time to time some files of different origins can't be deleted. Sometimes it's a PDF I've just downloaded, sometimes it's a source code file I'm editing on Eclipse.

I tried Unlocker and it says nothing is locking them.

Also, explorer doesn't work well with them. The simple act of right clicking the file makes explorer freeze. Opening the file with notepad++ freezes the notepad. If I use cmd.exe I can DIR the file, but if I try DIR /Q, or DEL /F, cmd doesn't return. If I press SHIFT + DEL on the file, the delete dialog shows and the progress bar moves back and forward forever and the statistics of deletion are always 0.

If I logout and login again, the file is still "locked". The only thing that solves is rebooting the system.

Any ideas on what is going on with these files?

UPDATE: I'm having the same issue described here: Unresponsive file causes Windows Explorer to stop responding

Community
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Gustavo
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2 Answers2

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It ended up being Windows Search service locking files and then crashing itself.

Eclipse writes lots of files during build and checkout of project branches. My workspace is located in my home folder which is one of the folders indexed by Windows Search. I believed this contributed to the service crash.

I just added an exception to the service not to index the workspace folder. I've been using Eclipse for days and no more files were locked.

Thank you guys.

Gustavo
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*** This has already been answered...but here's my own experience & solution.

Win7...Explorer crashes on discovering folders containing buggy audio files, eg wav file, mp4 file, mp3 file or similar badly encoded files.

No other program could delete these files (including Explorer) EXCEPT a small FREE program called File Assassin by Malwarebytes.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/fileassassin/

Once open just use the "Use delete on Windows reboot functions" setting, then click "Execute" & restart your computer as normal.

Check that the problem file is gone when your PC starts up.

*** Don't dick around with CMD prompts & registry hacks...this is the SAFEST & SIMPLEST METHOD!!!

Good luck!

kingal73
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