How To Delete Crap Off XP?

[Cognizant]

Someone please for the love of God tell me how to delete files that say

"'Cannot delete: it is being used by another person or program.

Close any programs that might be using the file and try again."

God it used to be so simple with Win95 :roll:

The files in question are media files, AVI to be exact. And even when I have every program closed, it still wont allow itself to be deleted.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of them? Thanks.

[Sooda]

Well, I'd say just restart the computer and try again. Or you can just wait a few minutes and then try again. Basically, eventually you should be able to delete it.

If it still doesn't delete then you should try to locate the program that's still using the file. Although I never really had to go that far.

[Kayvon]

Logging out and logging back in should be enough. The only time you should ever have to reboot in an NT-based version of Windows is after certain patches, like OS hotfixes and DirectX updates, or after some software/hardware installs.

[Sooda]

But you're kind of saying that it's all right to leave it on forever. I'd say a good reboot is a must even for an NT based OS. Of course, I don't know anything about XP though so... (I hate XP)

[Cognizant]

Oh no, you dont understand.

There is a file on my computer that I havent been able to delete for about a month. It just wont allow itself to be deleted. Its an avi file, that I've only opened once with Windows Media Player.

I'm going to try deleting it in Safe Mode...

[G­oku]

Where did you download the avi file from?? Ive downloaded files before which have been like that. In the end i took everything out of the folder it was in and just left that 1 file in the folder and deleted the whole folder, Try that if you ain't already.

[GottRammstein]

Cntrl + Alt + Del

Look for the most likely application that would be using the file, and terminate it.

If that doesn't work... buy a new computer. :D

[Mr. Boombastic]

There is a problem within Windows XP that if a file is over a certain size XP gets retarded and can't delete it. I had this same problem before but found a patch somewhere. I can't remember where though, sorry.

[IanTheAmerican]

u have to go into safe mode!!!
if that dosent work then it might be a registry problem.
Is it a read only file??
if it is than right click and turn off that attribute and try again.

[Majin_Dark]

Or you can try getting Norton Systemworks. That solves most of my computer problems. If that doesn't work, go to Windows Update and DL the appropriate system updates.

[Cognizant]

*walks into the thread wiping his eyes*

So I tried Safe Mode, but it still wont delete. And yes its in a Kazaa folder. I'm going to have to try every trick in the book to get this sucka.

I've got Norton internet security 2003, which is very good. Havent heard of systemworks...

I'm going to browse windows updates now for anything related to the deletion of annoying files...

[Majin_Dark]

But you're kind of saying that it's all right to leave it on forever. I'd say a good reboot is a must even for an NT based OS. Of course, I don't know anything about XP though so... (I hate XP)

Lol, I hate XP too. 2000 Pro is the OS for me.

[wastaz]

You go "fuser /path/file" and do "kill -9 <pids that show up>", as root of course.

Oh, did I mention that you should switch to a decent operating system first?
Must have forgot that ~_^

[Exidy]

I don't know anything about XP though so... (I hate XP)
Mind if we explore the logic of hating an OS that you don't know anything about? :wink:

[wastaz]

I don't know anything about XP though so... (I hate XP)
Mind if we explore the logic of hating an OS that you don't know anything about? :wink:

Mind if we explore why we assume that he hasnt tried it?
It's not like you cant not know anything about a windows os, if you've run one you've run them all basically. I could train a monkey to use windows.

[Exidy]

Mind if we explore why we assume that he hasnt tried it?
Maybe because he said he didn't know anything about it?

It's not like you cant not know anything about a windows os, if you've run one you've run them all basically.
So running Windows 3.1 is the same as running Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition?

[IanTheAmerican]

whatever!!! u all are almost sure of ur answers so in my opinion try each suggestion untill :
A. Ur computer crashes
B. U get rid of the file
C. U erase a critical windows file :wink: :wink:

[Kayvon]

You go "fuser /path/file" and do "kill -9 <pids that show up>", as root of course.

Oh, did I mention that you should switch to a decent operating system first?
Must have forgot that ~_^
Jeeze wastaz, I didn't think it would take you anywhere near this long to chime in with that one :) .

[petey-san]

ok, first up
sorry
im in a hurry so im going to skip reading all of the above
but i had a quick scan to make sure no one has said what im about too

the problem your having is actually a bug in windows (suprise suprise)
heres a clipit from a e-mail i got about it




AVI Files Bug Explorer

While attempting to copy a bunch of data around, I ran into a snag involving Explorer eating 100% of the CPU time. This was invoked repeatedly while attempting to copy large .AVI video files, though not all .AVI files. The clue that I had an affected file was an error informing me that the file was in use and could not be moved. After that, Explorer eats RAM and CPU like mad until I kill the Explorer process.

I actually didn't put the finger on .AVI files specifically until reading an archived post on NTBUGTRAQ by Russ Cooper. A quick test proved that this was indeed the case. The workaround is simple enough, but it might be helpful to know that I can readily reproduce the behavior on both Windows XP SP1 and Windows Server 2003. Russ hints at an XP fix available through PSS, but after a bit of searching, I didn't come up with any solid information about this particular issue. There are numerous sites that talk about this, as it turns out, but today was the first time I had encountered the problem.

To squash the bug, drill down to the following registry key:

HKEY CLASSES ROOT \ SystemFileAssociations \ .avi \ shellex \ PropertyHandler

Next, double-click the Default value in the right pane and delete the data, leaving the .Default value empty. After wiping out the entry, I can copy all video files with no ill effects, which includes both XP and Windows Server 2003.

i suffered from the same problem as you, since i've did what it said, it hasn't happened again, seems to be working

[Cognizant]

Oooh interesting. I dont want to mess up my computer because the registry is a fragile thing.

So I'm in the 'property handler' section, and on the right pane I have 'name', 'type' and 'data'. What you're saying is to delete all the stuff in the 'data' section? Do you know what that information actually is? I dont want to suddenly find out I cant play avi files :o

EDIT:

Was browsing and came across another registry thing:

[Many people have encountered a bug in Windows XP that prevents them from deleting large .avi (divx) files. The bug results from behavior that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing access to them. The file shmedia.dll is the root of this issue, as it dictates Explorer's treatment of .avi files.

To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following
registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Classes / CLSID / {87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E} / InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files.

You cannot find this key by searching; you'll have to manually browse for it. Remember: editing the registry is a great way to mess up your computer. If in doubt, back up the registry before tweaking it.]

Hmm, a little clarification...what does it mean by 'remove the registry key'? The data in the right pane or the whole folder or what?

Yes I'm not very clever... :?

[Redner]

<snip>

To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following
registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Classes / CLSID / {87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E} / InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files.

You cannot find this key by searching; you'll have to manually browse for it. Remember: editing the registry is a great way to mess up your computer. If in doubt, back up the registry before tweaking it.



Geez. And people complain that Linux is hard?!?! In Linux, there's no Registry. The closes thing to a Registry is the /etc directory. But that's even optional in Linux. For example, when I compile/install Apache, I keep it's *.conf files within it's install directory. And if I want to uninstall the thing, I'll just remove that directory.

Anyway, my way to erase an unerasable file would be to boot up a Linux CD, enter Rescue-Mode, install a module for fat32 or NTFS, mount the Windows partition, remove the offending file, and reboot to Windows.

-

[Cognizant]

Annoying problem gone! Finally! Thanks to a post in this link:

http://insiders8.ezboard.com/ffanho...picID=578.topic

[XP preview bug
annoying as hell

start menu -> run -> regedit

goto

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}

and rename it to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\-{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}

just a - dash in the front

then find

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}

rename too

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\-{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}
a dash in front again

exit regedit and try del it now , might need a reboot , mine didnt though if

i recall right]


Easy stuff. Just renamed two files by adding a dash, and the problem is gone. Eat that Bill Gates! Bite me!

BITE ME GATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bulgemonkey]

I used similar command to that when trying to find out how to change my half life cd key with out reinstalling and it worked a treat besides the fact u spend ages looking for the right file.

[Kayvon]

I recently had an encounter with this type of problem involving a corrupt avi. All that I needed to do was kill explorer (it seems that was the program that was using it) and delete it with the command line. No mucking around in the registry was needed, thankfully.