"Locked for editing" message

  • Thread starter Thread starter howard
  • Start date Start date
H

howard

I have one XLS file that gives me a message on attempting
to open that:

XXX.XLS is locked for editing by user xx

The user is always me. This is a single user workstation,
Windows XP Pro, Excel 2000.

This just started happening recently.

The only thing unusual about this particular XLS worksheet
is that it uses the Microsoft stock quote add-in.

The only thing that cures the problem and allows me to
edit the file again is a reboot.

I have tried re-registering Excel as suggested. No
improvement.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
howard
 
Howard,

I did a search on Google, and this problem appears to be surprisingly
common.

The common remedy appears to be to clean out your temp directories.

Key directories are:

\Windows\Temp directory (Win95/98/ME)
\Documents and Settings\<user>\local settings\temp directory (Win2K/WinXP)

Once you have cleaned out your temp directories, come back and let us know
if you were successful.

Regards,
Kevin
 
Thank you for the reply, Kevin.

I should have mentioned that I googled before posting
too. I have tried the two "solutions" I saw posted -
deleting all the files from the temp directories and
re-registering Excel. Neither of these helped.

I really don't think this can be a temp file problem.
After a reboot, I am always able to access the Excel file
for a few minutes before it starts giving me the "locked"
message.

Howard
 
Howard,

Sorry that you are still battling this issue. I just searched some more and
didn't find anything that piqued my interest.

I hope someone else jumps in tomorrow with other ideas.

Have you tried simple things like opening the file and renaming it? Does
the problem happen on other PCs? Can you open it on another PC, rename it,
and send it back to the original PC?

I am not sure what else to suggest. Again, hope someone else jumps in.

Best regards,
kevin
 
Kevin,

Yes, I tried renaming it. The clone file got the
same "file locked" error after a little while.

Don't know if it would happen on other PC's - this is my
only system with Excel 2000/Win XP.

Thanks,
Howard
 
Howard,

If by *workstation* you mean you are working over a network then Knowledge
Base article Q328170 may apply.

We experienced this problem at work with files being Read-Only when trying
to open them through Windows Explorer and as you said, once it has happened
the only cure was to reboot. Basically the KB says that if the Windows XP
Shell Column Handler looks at the file at the same time as the application
trying to open it, the application thinks that the file is in use. The
workaround that they suggest is to disable the particular Column Handler key
in the registry. But if you don't want to hack the registry then I would
think the always opening file through Excel and not Explorer may work.

HTH

Sandy
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