can not delete a file

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G

Guest

hey guys,

This may seem foolish, but I'm having a lot of trouble trying to delete this
folder. I tried to move it to the recycle bin, but a window comes up, saying
"Cannot delete midaddle: It is being used by another person or program."
Now, I tried to close all the applications that I had open, and it still
won't delete it. I'm afraid this might be spyware and i can't get rid of it.

If you could help me, i would be grateful,

thanks,
eric
 
Have you run Spybot Search and Destroy, Ad-aware, Pest Patrol or Spyware
Blaster? All of these do a great job at detecting and removing spyware and
other malware. Do you run a firewall? How about anti-virus software?
Have you done a Google search for the file in question?
 
Eric

I have problems sometimes deleting files that I have downloaded using p2p.
What I suggest you may wish to try is to check in the folder and if there
are files there, delete each one - but one by one.

This will tell you if there is one particular file that is causing the
problem. Once you find this file, right click on it, choose propoeties,
then choose open with- click on the change button, then choose notepad, and
then open the file with notepad. Delete all of the text in the file (doesn't
matter what it looks like - press control key and A, then press delete).
Click file, save. Open it again (in notepad), close it again and then delete
it.

I know someone will say that this is a dumb way to delete but it works for
me for these peskly files that don't delete.

Hope this helps

Doug
 
Hi, Eric.

A common solution to an "undeletable" file or folder is to open a "DOS"
window and use "old faithful" DOS commands. If the complaint is that the
file is in use, you may need to reboot into Safe Mode to be sure that
nothing starts that uses that file.

In the "DOS" window, navigate to the parent of that folder and type at the
prompt: dir /x

This should give you a directory with an extra column of SFN (Short File
Names, also known as 8.3 filenames) before the LFN. Sometimes a filename
looks normal, but actually includes an undisplayable character or other
tricky thing. Since every file MUST have a valid 8.3 filename, dir /x
should smoke out any such weird characters. Then use the SFN to delete the
file or folder.

For a folder, use the command rd <SFN> /s. The /s switch will delete the
folder PLUS all its subfolders and files, so be sure there is nothing in the
tree that you want to keep, then answer Yes to the Are you sure question.

For a single file, use the usual command: del <SFN>. In the "DOS" window,
type any command followed by /? to see a mini-help file of the switches and
parameters available with that command, such as dir /?

Of course, this "brute force" method only gets rid of the file or folder.
It does not remove spyware or anything else from your Registry. You still
need to "practice safe hex" by running programs like Ad-aware and Spybot
Search & Destroy regularly, along with your firewall and antivirus programs.
And be careful what you click on; most of this stuff that gets onto our
computers is there because we invited it to infect us. :>(

I never heard of midaddle, but Google gets 3200 hits on it! Here's the
first one:
How To Get Rid of MidADdle, the EVIL spyware program that WONT die ...
http://www.angelfire.com/un/midaddle/

RC
 
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