File can't be deleted from TEMP - Registry problem?

[hedgehog]

I am really not experienced with these things, but maybe something
needs to be done in the Registry to correct the problem:

My brother got himself into a jam! He downloaded an MPEG from
Morpheus or Imesh or one of those file swaps and viewed it. He
deleted it from his hard drive. But he accidentally found a second
copy in his Temp folder. Somebody told me that there is a copy in the
temp because he tried to "preview" the MPEG before it actually
downloaded - that's why the file is in TEMP. The file can't be played
(I think it is 0 bytes) but it says it is type MPEG. The title of the
file is also something he does not want on his system. When he tries
to delete it, it tells him access denied, or something like that.
Tried to drag into Trash - no luck. Can't copy/paste/cut it into
another dir. Can't even rename the file. I tried to help him but am
no expert myself. Checked the permissions at the file level and the
folder level, and there was nothing I could see wrong (not that I
would know anyway). When he empties the temp folder, this file always
get skipped.

What is going on? He really wants to remove this. Would there be
something in the registry that is preventing him from removing this?
Thanks.

 

[Jack]

I assume that by the TEMP folder that you are referring
either to to the C:\Windows\Temp or the C:\WINNT\Temp
folder.

There are a number of reasons why the user might not be
able to delete items from these folders.

The first is that the user does not have the required
security privileges to do so. In this case logon with an
Administrator account and delete the file. This is an
unlikely scenario though as generally the user that
creates a file has complete control over it and can
therefore delete it.

The second and more likely scenario is that a program has
the entry locked. Such a program might be started in a
number of ways including from the registry. I am at a loss
though to understand why an MPEG file should be treated in
this way.

My best advice is to call up the command line window (DOS
like) and delete it from there. This window can be called
up by going to the start menu, clicking on run and
typing "CMD" and then return. You will need to navigate to
the relevant folder and then delete the file using the
del "filename.extension" format. This is a technique which
I have known to work under these circumstances but I do
not guarantee it.

Hope the above helps and tell your brother not to be a
naughty boy in future!

regards,

Jack.