re: can't delete file Monday, April 24, 2006 at 4:31 am Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum Posted by Matthew D. Healy (1255 messages posted) The Windows XP Annoyances book (which comes from the people who operate this discussion board) has a good section on multiple ways to delete an undeletable file. If you don't want to buy a copy -- though I've found my copy of the book a handy resource -- you can visit any large bookstore in your neighborhood and browse a copy of the book at the store. The reason why the file is always in use is because the Windows Explorer shell that implements the user interface automatically opens media files in the background in order to support various automatic actions with them. However, as you have learned this "feature" can be buggy and refuse to let go of files when you want to delete them. It is somewhat unusual that you cannot delete or rename the file in Safe Mode, because that's usually the first thing I try in cases like this. But rather than list the next seven things to try myself, I suggest you look at what the XP Annoyances book suggests for this common annoyance. PS: I have no business relationship to the people who publish the Annoyances books, aside from being a fairly frequent poster on this website and also the owner of several of their books -- most of which score very high on the "dog-eared pages" metric (meaning I've torn corners off many pages to mark places for frequent reference). On Monday, April 24, 2006 at 1:33 am, Talino Bruno wrote: >I have a 600 Mb AVI file on my computer and I just can't delete it I get messages >saying that another program is using it. I have tried dragging it to the recycle >box, shift delete, delete and tried in safe mode as well. Also of interest is that >it won't let me rename it. Any suggestions? Written in response to: can't delete file (Talino Bruno: Monday, April 24, 2006 at 1:33 am) There are presently no replies to this message. All messages in this thread [show all] can't delete file (Talino Bruno: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 1:33 am) re: can't delete file (tea see: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 2:24 am) re: can't delete file (Talino Bruno: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 4:47 pm) re: can't delete file (tea see: Tue, Apr 25, 2006, 6:29 am) re: can't delete file (Matthew D. Healy: Mon, Apr 24, 2006, 4:31 am) re: can't delete file (Jeff: Tue, Apr 25, 2006, 7:48 am) Reply or follow-up to this message Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum