Cannot Delete File and Folder in Windows XP?

There are times when suddenly for without obvious reason you cannot delete a file. You try several times but Windows keeps displaying the annoying message informing you one of these problems:

- cannot delete file: Access is denied
- the source or destination file may be in use
- cannot read from source file or disk
- make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use

But what is using the file? What is causing error actually? No additional information, no further explanation.

Sometimes just by killing the explorer process through the task manager and restarting it again the locked file problem is solved, but sometimes you have to restart Windows when it doesn't work. The question is do you want to restart Windows everytime you're unable to delete a file? I don't. What irritates the most is when a file cannot be deleted even after system reboot.

This happened quite often to me until I finally found this Unlocker. Since I use this free program, I have never had any difficulty anymore in deleting a locked file. All the locked files can be deleted just by right-clicking on it and select the command to unlock it. No need to restart Windows at all.



It lets you know which program is currently locking the file as well. Then you can decide whether you want it deleted, renamed, moved, or copied. At the Unlocker sites, the author, Cedrick Collomb, shows you the comparison of the unlocking feature of Unlocker with several other similar programs to ensure you how cool it is. And it is.

If you want it to automatically display the unlocking dialog when a file cannot be deleted, let the Unlocker assistant runs in background. The dialog shows up right after you close the error message displayed by Windows without you have to right-click the locked file.

This program can also be used to delete index.dat file. Just right-click the file, select "Delete" option (see screenshot), and end it by clicking "Unlock All". Warning: In some cases you may still need to reboot Windows to delete a locked file, but mostly you don't need it to. Moreover, sometimes you may find that some files cannot be deleted even after running Unlocker's normal operation. Go to the Unlocker's site to get the answer as I notice there are some common problems that are answered there. For me, this program does its job very well.

Unlocker is a freeware and works for Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista.