{"id":155,"date":"2011-09-19T12:29:44","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T12:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fileinspect.com\/?p=155"},"modified":"2018-06-05T18:12:37","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T18:12:37","slug":"how-to-unlock-locked-files-in-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/how-to-unlock-locked-files-in-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Unlock Locked Files in Windows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever tried to delete a file only to receive &#8220;Cannot delete Folder\/File&#8221; and &#8220;The Source File May Be in Use&#8221; error messages? If you are a Windows user, then most likely you get these error messages every once in a while. Dealing with locked files in Windows can be annoying, but fortunately it&#8217;s not all that hard to unlock them.<\/p>\n<h2>There are two major reasons why Windows doesn&#8217;t allow you to delete a file<\/h2>\n<p>One of them is quite simple \u2013 you are not logged in as the administrator of your computer. If that\u2019s the case, Windows will display an &#8220;Access Is Denied&#8221; error message when you try to delete a file that requires administrative privileges. This issue can be easily resolved by logging out of Windows and logging back in using the administrator account.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>However, if you are already logged in as administrator, but the file you want to delete is still locked, you&#8217;ll need to either use Auslogics Task Manager to unlock locked files really easily or kill explorer.exe and prevent it from locking the file.<\/p>\n<h2>To unlock a file using Auslogics Task Manager, simply do the following:<\/h2>\n<p>1. Open Auslogics Task Manager and click on Locked Files link in the pane on the left<br \/>\n2. Select the file you want to unlock and press Unlock<br \/>\n3. That\u2019s it! The file is now unlocked and you can easily delete it<\/p>\n<h2>Advanced computer users can choose to unlock locked files by killing explorer.exe. Here is how:<\/h2>\n<p>1. Open the command prompt by clicking on Start \u2013 Run, typing cmd and hitting Enter<br \/>\n2. Navigate to the location of the locked file<br \/>\n3. Open the Task Manager by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and go to the Processes tab<br \/>\n4. Select the explorer.exe process and click on the End Process button to kill it<br \/>\n5. Go back to the command prompt and delete the file<br \/>\n6. Launch the Task Manager again, click on File \u2013 New Task<br \/>\n7. Type explorer.exe in the Create New Task field and press OK<\/p>\n<p>Now you should be able to get rid hard to delete files. Personally, I prefer the easy way of unlocking locked files, but it\u2019s always good to have an alternative method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever tried to delete a file only to receive &#8220;Cannot delete Folder\/File&#8221; and &#8220;The Source File May Be in Use&#8221; error messages? If you are a Windows user, then most likely you get these error messages every once in a while. Dealing with locked files in Windows can be annoying, but fortunately it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[25,18],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Unlock Locked Files in Windows - The Official FileInspect Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/how-to-unlock-locked-files-in-windows\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Outbyte Computing Pty Ltd\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCI6brHKmaiiUCcseAlcV3tQ\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/outbyte\"],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1200x630-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/1200x630-3.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Outbyte Computing Pty Ltd\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Official FileInspect Blog\",\"description\":\"News and Perspectives from IT Experts\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/how-to-unlock-locked-files-in-windows\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fileinspect.com\/blog\/how-to-unlock-locked-files-in-windows\/\",\"name\":\"How to Unlock Locked Files in Windows - 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