How can I tell what process is using a file?

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M

microsoft.news.com

We have a file that cannot be renamed because it is being used by another
process.
But we do not know which one.

How can we find out which one?

Kind Regards,

Robert Gilland.
 
Use Sysinternals' Process Explorer or Open Handles (oh.exe). Both are
available from the Microsoft.com site.

John
 
Well... the easy way is to take the file name (which you didn't state)
and Google it. If you made up the file name yourself, well that is
something else entirely. And I don't know, but why do you want to change
a filename that are locked by something else? You know what problems
that could cause, right?
 
No it is our own file,
It should not be locked by anyone,
none of our processes are running.

we are currently downloading windows 2003 resource kit.
and will attempt to use oh.exe to identify the culprit.

Regards,

Robert.
 
Ouch! Something locking your own file doesn't sound good. I would really
like to know what that was.
 
You know... safe mode can do wonders most of the time. And I used to
believe in muliple OS on a machine so one OS can fix the other. But
having a barebones OS on CD or whatever is bootable is far better IMHO.
One I really like right now is BartPE (it's free). So if you really get
stuck, I think you should go this route.
 
We have used OH.exe
and it is an unknown system process holding the file open

Process ID 00000004

This is a dead end for us.

We have no Idea what this Process is, or why it would be holding our file
open.

Regards,

Robert.
 
I have read the Blurb on this and am at a loss as to how to actually use it.
see the computer we are fixing is 3000 km away from us, we are fixing it via
Remote Desktop

Even if I was there with a bootable CD, how would that help me?

Kind Regards,

Robert.
 
Oh remotely? Oh I don't know how you can boot BartPE's and operate it
remotely. It could be done though. As what good booting up another OS,
like from a CD would be that no files would be locked. Thus you can
rename, delete, move, etc. anything by will.
 
I believe this process in the system kernel process, not a smart process to
be killing.

Regards,

Robert.
 
this is the scenerio.

If I reboot the computer the system does not lock the file.
However as soon as another computer tries to access that file.
the local system locks it.

This is our problem.

King Regards,

Robert.
 
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