I've had enough of trying to rename/move/delete a file and getting the message: "source or destination file may be in use"

For those of you who regularly have this problem, I've found this handy little program called Who Lock Me. All it really does is, when you right click on a file and select the "Who Lock Me" option, it tells you which programs are currently using that file. This is the best solution I've found so far for this problem, short of a reboot which for some of us takes quite some time. You can even install this without rebooting

Gotta wonder if the author was inspired by this guy when he was thinking of names...

I desperately wanted to get that program to work for me, but it wouldn't run on my systems at all. I tried doing everything in its instructions, but I could never get it working.

Has there been a new version of it?

I hardly use this term but.....
ROTFLMAO

Awesome program, thanks for the tipoff!

Sorry, Tony. I'm not sure. I just ran across it in a Google for that error message, thinking there would be some FAQ somewhere with a solution for the problem. I was happy to run across this program that works very well for me. I'm sorry it doesn't work on your system. Maybe if you emailed the guy he'll know what's wrong.

I also thought it was an odd name. I can't tell if it's a translation issue or what

Dunno, but I use Process Explorer from www.sysinternals.com

I've got process explorer, too, and have used it to help me sometimes.

But I liked the idea of WhoLockMe: having the right-click context menu immediately available when I got a "cannot delete FILENAME" message box. Too bad I couldn't make it work.

it wouldn't run on my systems at all

On my sys it appears as if it wouldn't run if the file isn't locked, nothing happens but the cursor changing to the hourglass for a sec. The window with the process list only pops up if the file is locked. Maybe that could be why it aint working for you?

Out of curiosity, what is it that typically has the file locked? I am having this issue on several of my domains at work, and I can't seem to find a pattern. Unfortunately, it never happens to me, and only randomly to others.

One common source seems to be explorer locking the currently marked file if you've got the webview 'feature' enabled.

Yeah, I caught that one quick. And disabled it quick. Only problem is that it happens a lot when trying to open a file in Word directly. The only weird consistent thing is that it only happens with a 2000 server doing the file serving, never when linux is doing the serving. -=shrug=-

The only weird consistent thing is that it only happens with a 2000 server doing the file serving, never when linux is doing the serving.

I'm not an expert, but this should be related to the fact that Linux uses the more flexible POSIX type file locks while your w2k servers use the more restrictive win32 file locking (no overlapping ranges, no range splitting or merging, and no upgrade or downgrade).

EDIT: typo

What a pain.

At least on Win2k there is only one type of locking. Locking on Linux/Unix is always a mess, with various different ways it could happen.

You're not the only one Tony. It doesn't do anything on my Win2k boxes either.

The shell extension seems to work, but the .exe that the shell extension runs does nothing. You can run the .exe directly, but it still does nothing. I'll have to see how hard coding something like this in .NET would be.

I'm sorry you're having problems with it. I'm still using it fairly regularly. I found out the other day that a program still had hold of a file even after the file had been moved when the program was closed! Strange.

Anyway, I'd like to take this time to point out a couple other great programs that I've been using recently. I'm sure people already know about these, but in case someone doesn't, they're great.

AVG Anti-Virus
Free Anti-Virus software with free updates. Seems to work well.

Weather Watcher
Better than Weatherbug and with NO ads or spyware! It's much more attractive, too.

Okay, there's my plugs. I just felt like I should give something in return for these things

Maybe it requires NTFS? It works for me on my Win2K/NTFS system.

-Dylan

Nope, all my machines are NTFS only.