Finding owner program of a process and killing it

[Guest]

I tried to delete some dlls but they were in use. How can I find the program
that is using the dlls and then kill the program? (Even though I had no
program running (in the task manager) I was still unable to delete the dlls)

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

One .DLL file may be used by more than one program. Are these .DLL files MS
ones or 3rd party ones? So long as there aren't too many, perhaps you would
like to post the names of the files here?

 

[Guest]

That is not a very smart move. Some DLLs (Dynamic Link Libarries) are
shared, meaning they are used by more than one application. LEAVE DLLs ALONE!

 

[Jock Strap]

That is not a very smart move. Some DLLs (Dynamic Link Libarries) are
shared, meaning they are used by more than one application. LEAVE
DLLs ALONE!

Depends on the DLL, of course. If you're running an app called MyApp.exe
and it
has an associated DLL called MyApp.dll then it's fairly safe to assume that
killing
MyApp.dll is okay to do.

 

[Will Denny]

Depends on the DLL, of course. If you're running an app called MyApp.exe
and it
has an associated DLL called MyApp.dll then it's fairly safe to assume
that killing
MyApp.dll is okay to do.

Hi

In that circumstance, yes, it 'may' be safe to the particular .DLL file.
However, can you be 100% sure that another program didn't install that file
beforehand and may still need it?

 

[Guest]

Jock, you're part-right. Most (99.9%) DLLs DO NOT have associated names.
Some present-day applications have uninstall features which include
deleting the DLLs. Deleting a dll can be fatal to another program. If
you are an expert, delete to your hearts content, but to a novice,
LEAVE THEM ALONE.

 

[Jock Strap]

In that circumstance, yes, it 'may' be safe to the particular .DLL
file. However, can you be 100% sure that another program didn't
install that file beforehand and may still need it?

Like I said, it depends on the name and how unique that name is.
If you installed an app called "HiThereMatey" and you found a
DLL named "HiThereMatey.dll" in your System folder, then it's a
fairly safe bet that no other app installed it.