The undeletable file

[Guest]

I still cant delete the .avi file I got from winmx. I remember last time I think I went into regedit. Help!

 

[*Vanguard*]

Marty said in news:[email protected]:

I still cant delete the .avi file I got from winmx. I remember last
time I think I went into regedit. Help!

Try the following (Explorer for the desktop GUI may have a reference to
the file because of the thumbnail cache and having to open the file to
get the image):

- Open a DOS shell and navigate to wherever is the problem file.
- Open Task Manager.
- Under the Processes tab, kill all instances of explorer.exe.
- Your desktop will disappear (because explorer.exe is also used for the
GUI shell).
- Delete the file in the DOS shell.
- Use Task Manager's File -> New task menu to load "explorer.exe".
- Your GUI shell will reappear (but the system tray icons will probably
be screwed up; it's a flaky feature).

 

[Guest]

Tried that, didn't work.

Marty said in news:[email protected]:


Try the following (Explorer for the desktop GUI may have a reference to
the file because of the thumbnail cache and having to open the file to
get the image):

- Open a DOS shell and navigate to wherever is the problem file.
- Open Task Manager.
- Under the Processes tab, kill all instances of explorer.exe.
- Your desktop will disappear (because explorer.exe is also used for the
GUI shell).
- Delete the file in the DOS shell.
- Use Task Manager's File -> New task menu to load "explorer.exe".
- Your GUI shell will reappear (but the system tray icons will probably
be screwed up; it's a flaky feature).

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[Shenan Stanley]

I still cant delete the .avi file I got from winmx. I remember last
time I think I went into regedit. Help!

First, try this registry hack to help speed things up:
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1209/

Your choices then are:


(1)
Open Task Manager and kill off all Explorer processors.
Open just one instance to get your desktop back.
Do not use Windows Explorer to get to the file, do it at a command prompt
with CD and such command line things.
Then DEL the file in question.


(2)
Reboot the computer.
Do all of this as soon as you get logged in:
Do not use Windows Explorer to get to the file, do it at a command prompt
with CD and such command line things.
Then DEL the file in question.


(3)
Reboot the computer into SAFE MODE.
Attempt to delete the file there either with the command prompt method or
Windows Explorer.


(Detailed Version of the deletion process above)
Write down the exact path and full filename of the file in question.
Reboot/Kill Explorer and restart it/Reboot into Safe mode.
Without using Windows Explorer or My Computer, open a Command Prompt
(Start -> Run and type in CMD).
Change into the directory in question:
CD "X:\blah directory\blah sub-directory\"
(Quotes good.)
Then type in DIR to make sure you are in the right place..
Then type in:
del "filename you wrote down.ext"


It seems Windows XP is reading the file information of the
movie/mpg/avi/blah blah files all the time.. If anything
is wrong/weird/etc - it may not let go for you to erase it.
Thus, in a command prompt, this does not happen. The
reboot/killing of Explorer processes/etc simply clears things
up first.

 

[*Vanguard*]

Marty said in news:[email protected]:

Tried that, didn't work.

Then tell us what WAS the error message that you got. Access denied?
File inuse? What?