Unlock Files or Folders on WinXP So You Can Delete Them

Posted by hts | February 24, 2008 .

If you are using Windows Xp, then you most certainly encountered the following error when trying to delete, move or rename a file or a folder:

or one of it’s flavors:

Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Obviously, yet another annoyance of winxp. While the MS official help page doesn’t offer much of a solution, there is a small, free program called “Unlocker” that does what it’s name says: unlocks a file or a folder so you can delete, move or rename it.
Here’s a screenshot of the application:

The dropdown in the bottom-left corner of the window has the following options: Delete, Rename, Move, Copy.