This might seem like a silly question but I have 2 DivX files on my PC that I am unable to delete as it is saying that it is being used by another program but there is no programs running at the time. Any suggestions? Thanks
Use process explorer to see what has a handle on the file. Probably XP's buggy thumbnail extension. Kill the handle and delete, although if it is the thumbnail shell, then you might want to kill that to or you won't be able to delete from explorer, since it will just lock the file again.
If the Folder View is set to "Thumnails" this will sometimes happen because Windows is accessing the File to Generate the Thumnail Preview so if you Change the Folder View to "Icons" then you should hopefully be able to delete the Files..... Cheers
It's a common bug I've found when you have a lot of codecs compiled in your video codec library, as some codecs won't leave your process string, and is embedded in explorer itself. If you are running Windows Xp, there is a good and easy fix for this. Bring up the task manager, go to processes, highlight explorer.exe, and then click end task. The windows structure will shut down, leaving only your desktop image remaining, so don't panic. After that happens, move your mouse up to file on the task launcher, and click on new task. When the prompt comes up, simply type 'windows', and press enter. It will reload windows and all the running applications you had up before you closed explorer, and the codec will have then been released from the windows substring, giving you the ability to delete those pesky video files.
Thanks everyone for your solutions - I have successfully removed 1 file that was taking up space, but I still have the shell of a second file which will not delete. This is showing as a Windows Media file but has no size or thumbnail picture.
