1261

How can I find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows?

For instance, when trying to delete a folder, Windows reports this:

The action can't be completed because the folder is open in another program

Happens the same with a file, but how do I find out what program or application is currently using it and preventing me from deleting the file or folder?

3
  • 7
    See this ServerFault question.
    – John Fouhy
    Jul 17, 2009 at 3:34
  • 1
    I learned that Windows 10 (and I guess as early as Windows 7) has a program called Resource Monitor, which lets you see what processes are locking a file or folder: stackoverflow.com/a/24126882/470749
    – Ryan
    Jul 12, 2016 at 22:53
  • Neither of the answers below helped me to delete an .iso file, and then I looked into Hyper-V manager, and one the virtual machines used the .iso file as source for DVD drive.
    – Roman O
    Sep 1, 2019 at 17:35

14 Answers 14

150

PowerShell method:

if ((Test-Path -Path $FileOrFolderPath) -eq $false) {
  Write-Warning "File or directory does not exist."
} else {
  $LockingProcess = CMD /C "openfiles /query /fo table | find /I ""$FileOrFolderPath"""
  Write-Host $LockingProcess
}

The openfiles command needs to have support for local files enabled, by running openfiles /local on and restarting.

More details How to find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows archive

3
  • Running this gave me the same Access is Denied error I was getting originally, and then always printed out the does not exist error message. The below answer, however, gave me the information I needed - IIS was locking the directory I needed to change. Jun 20, 2018 at 16:40
  • 15
    It looks like you could basically achieve it in pure cmd withopenfiles /query /fo table | find /I "<path>"?
    – mwfearnley
    Aug 31, 2018 at 11:30
  • 9
    Instead of openfiles you can use a similar tool Handle from Sysinternals: handle.exe -u -nobanner -accepteula "C:\FileOrFolderForWhichWeWantToFindLockingInformation"
    – PolarBear
    Jul 20, 2021 at 11:24
1527
+50

You can use the Resource Monitor for this which comes built-in with Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11!

  1. Open Resource Monitor, which can be found
    • By searching for Resource Monitor or resmon.exe in the start menu, or
    • As a button on the Performance tab in your Task Manager
  2. Go to the CPU tab
  3. In the Processes section, select all processes by clicking the checkbox next to "Image" in the headers.
  4. Use the search field in the Associated Handles section
    • See blue arrow in screen shot below

When you've found the handle, you can identify the process by looking at the Image and/or PID column.

You can then try to close the application as you normally would, or, if that's not possible, just right-click the handle and kill the process directly from there. Easy peasy!

Resource Monitor screenshot

9
  • 33
    @ComFreek Well, ProcessExplorer might be more powerful in many cases, but for me Resource Monitor have always found the application locking the file I'm trying to do something with. I also prefer it to Process Explorer simply because it's right there in the OS. No need for an extra download and an extra shortcut somewhere.
    – Svish
    May 6, 2014 at 21:16
  • I tried to end the process and was told, "When attempting to execute the command, the following system error occurred: Access is denied." I had Resource Monitor running as admin. Feb 21, 2016 at 23:13
  • Works for me. Since my error was a python-related error, I had to make sure to get rid of the double backslashes to fit Window's search criteria.
    – moondra
    May 26, 2018 at 16:47
  • @Svish, what to do if the file is locked by a proccess running on another machine within the local network? Sep 4, 2018 at 12:40
  • Seems to work the same for me. I created a folder, navigated to it using cmd, and the folder (with no files in it) showed up in the Associated Handles for cmd.exe. The type is listed as File though, so I guess resmon (or the file system maybe?) doesn't really distinguish between the two. A file handle is a file handle, regardless, maybe. 🤷‍♂️
    – Svish
    Apr 24, 2019 at 12:22
464

A couple of options:

Microsoft/SysInternals Process Explorer - Go to Find > Find Handle or DLL. In the "Handle or DLL substring:" text box, type the path to the file (e.g. "C:\path\to\file.txt") and click "Search". All processes which have an open handle to that file should be listed.

WhoLockMe - Explorer extension which adds a right-click menu option

N.B. WhoLockMe appears to not work with Win 10 (at least I have been unable to register it with either of the 32- or 64-bit versions of regsvr32.exe).

8
  • 14
    NOTE: Unlocker installs Adware if you are not careful. From their website: "Promotional feature: Fully optional Delta toolbar." Mar 13, 2014 at 21:50
  • 1
    @jpmc26 I have no idea.. I've stopped using it in favour of Unlocker which has a nicer interface IMHO. Unlocker was in my original answer but was edited out because it later had adware added to the installer.
    – Shevek
    Sep 24, 2014 at 19:28
  • 6
    @jpmc26 No. WhoLockMe does not work on Windows 7.
    – ceving
    Nov 28, 2014 at 19:39
  • The first link looks like it is broken and the second doesn't look like it is working in Windows 10
    – Serj Sagan
    Sep 10, 2015 at 1:44
  • 2
    It should be noted that process explorer has to be run as adminstrator. Ran it on Windows 10 as normal user and it didn't work.
    – Devolus
    Oct 17, 2017 at 7:20
271

Have a look at Process Explorer (procexp.exe).

From its introduction:

Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out.

To find out what process is using a specific file follow these steps:

  1. Go to Find, Find Handle or DLL.. or simply press Ctrl+F.

    Enter image description here

  2. Enter the name of the file and press Search.

    Enter image description here

  3. Process Explorer will list all processes that have a handle to the file open. Click on an entry to focus the process in the main window.

    Enter image description here

  4. Optionally, you can then even close the handle manually through the lower pane (Ctrl+L):

    Enter image description here

4
  • 9
    Process Hacker also can do it.
    – Benoit
    Mar 12, 2012 at 10:41
  • Note to Googlers, current version of PE appears to no longer support Close Handle
    – Deleted
    Dec 12, 2017 at 8:09
  • handle didn't work as expected (Win81). Reproduce: open some file in an editor, e.g. nano some.py, then try: handle.exe -nobanner some.py and get: No matching handles found.
    – not2qubit
    Nov 22, 2018 at 15:47
  • @Deleted in current version (2023) there is no righ-click but the first click on the Handler will focus it in the list of processes where one can review it and Kill process tree if needed. Or at least it shows the PID.
    – ino
    Apr 25, 2023 at 11:44
67

LockHunter can unlock any handlers that may have locked your files or folders. Unlike similar freewares, it supports both 32 and 64-bit Windows.

It is a free tool to delete files blocked by something you do not know. LockHunter is useful for fighting against malware, and other programs that are blocking files without a reason. Unlike other similar tools it deletes files into the recycle bin so you may restore them if deleted by mistake.

  • Shows processes locking a file or folder
  • Allows to unlock, delete, copy or rename a locked file
  • Allows to kill locking process
  • Allows to remove locking processes from hard drive
  • Integrates in to Explorer menu
  • It deletes files into the recycle bin, so you may restore them if deleted by mistake
  • Supports both 32 and 64bit Windows
6
  • This is great but the portable version doesn't integrate with the explorer menu Nov 1, 2021 at 13:28
  • Yeah this program is from Russia. That's a no. Secure Boot mode fixed the problem for me.
    – DSchmidt
    Dec 3, 2022 at 16:48
  • 1
    @DSchmidt I'm not sure what problem you were having but secure boot has little to nothing to do with what this tool does (or, indeed, basically any answer/tool on this entire question). Is there a reason you assume all software made by Russian people is inherently unusable? Apr 14, 2023 at 20:06
  • 2
    @TheXenocide Apparently the process locking my file was not started in secure boot which made any tool unnecessary. On Russia: I'm just avoiding most closed source software made by tiny companies with thin or questionable reputation, history, and source of money. This being Russian is just another drop in the "avoid" bucket, not the sole reason.
    – DSchmidt
    Apr 17, 2023 at 10:51
  • This tool is not working for me under Windows 10 64-bit when the locked file is on a network drive but locked by a process on my PC. Using the Microsoft Resource Monitor to search for handles did indeed show what was locking my files.
    – J Smith
    Jul 20, 2023 at 18:49
24

Microsoft PowerToys File Locksmith utility does exactly what you are asking for.

  • Right-click on the file or folder to open a context menu
  • The utility opens, showing locking processes. There, you can see which files are locked and terminate a particular process

Alternative: ShowWhatProcessLocksFile

ShowWhatProcessLocksFile is a lightweight clone of File Locksmith that supports older versions of Windows.

1
  • 1
    Wow, neat an simple. And probably a future built-in in future versions of Windows.
    – carloswm85
    Mar 27, 2023 at 21:34
14

EMCO UnlockIT can identify the process that has locked the file as well as unlock the file so that you may delete/edit/move it. The program is completely free, though the newer version is a bit slower and more bloated than the original (which had a plain, unskinned GUI, but loaded pretty much instantaneously and without an annoying splash screen). Also, the original version used to pop up automatically whenever the error you mentioned is triggered, allowing you to instantly unlock the file and perform the operation you were attempting.

Still, UnlockIT is an incredibly useful program that provides a basic functionality that is critically missing from Windows. It's among the standard toolkit of utilities that I install on all Windows computers I work on.

2
  • @John: Well, it does identify the program that has locked a file. And you can still manually kill the process through task manager. However, it's usually simpler to just unlock the file (especially when it's explorer that has locked the file most of the time) instead of having the kill the process that has locked it (usually due to having accessed the file and left the file handler open due to a program glitch). Mar 12, 2012 at 3:46
  • As with LockHunter, this tool is not working for me under Windows 10 64-bit when the locked file is on a network drive but locked by a process on my PC. Using the Microsoft Resource Monitor to search for handles did indeed show what was locking my files.
    – J Smith
    Jul 20, 2023 at 18:50
12

A lot of the programs here are outdated. I finally ended up using nirsoft's OpenedFilesView which worked really well.

Screenshot

Though the best part is the explorer menu integration, which is easy to enable. As per website

Explorer Context Menu

Starting from version 1.10, you can launch OpenedFilesView directly from Windows Explorer, and view only the handles of the file or folder that you want to inspect. In order to enable this feature, check the 'Enable Explorer Context Menu' under the Options menu. After you enable this feature, you can right-click on any file or folder on Windows Explorer, and choose the 'OpenedFilesView' item from the menu. If you run the OpenedFilesView option for a folder, it'll display all opened files inside that folder. If you run the OpenedFilesView option for a file, it'll display all opened handles for that file.

context menu

This tool still works reliably in 2019

0
5

If you do not know the program the file it is using then you can go to My Computer; right click; select Manage. Under System Tools > Shared folders > Open Files, you should be able to see the user who has locked the file. You can close file from here and then you can perform the task of rename or delete the file. Hope this helps

1
  • 2
    This will only work for shared folders.
    – sweetfa
    Aug 14, 2013 at 3:57
3

Additional possibility, just to save people the time I just spent:

In older versions of Windows, you might get "Access Denied - you might not have rights, or the file might be in use". If you find through Process Explorer that the files are, in fact, not opened by anyone, odds are that there is an issue with security. Using an administrator account, select the files in Explorer, right-click and select Properties, Security, Advanced, Owner. Odds are that the files are owned by an account that no longer exists or can no longer be verified to exist (because of changing Active Directory trust settings).

Change ownership to Administrators and you are good to go.

3

Here was my discovery & solution.

Incidentally, none of the above answers solved my problem.

I even tried using UNLOCKER which proved worthless.

My problem was that of Memeo Autosync Backup

Apparently, this backup process leaves enough of a "ghost like file." This "ghost like file," would show up whenever I would ALT-TAB my computer (Windows Professional XP), i.e. I would see TWO MS Excel Programs running, when I only had ONE visible, on my TASK BAR.

I came across this solution when I thought it might have been the SYMANTEC Endpoint (Anti-Virus) Protection; and disabled the program. However, I kept getting the error message:

cannot delete (LARGE.xls file): It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using this file and try again.

I subsequently kept seeing the Memeo notice of "syncing" and QUIT the program.

Subsequently, NO ERROR.

For you, it could be ANY of these background saves.

1

SysInternal's handle utility is designed exactly for this problem for the command line. Just execute the following:

handle -a path

Here is an example output:

→handle -a "C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db"

Nthandle v5.0 - Handle viewer
Copyright (C) 1997-2022 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

xplorer2_64.exe    pid: 108904 type: File           844: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
xplorer2_64.exe    pid: 108904 type: File          1098: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
xplorer2_64.exe    pid: 108904 type: File          1B78: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
explorer.exe       pid: 75252  type: File          2B68: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
explorer.exe       pid: 75252  type: File          4B1C: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
firefox.exe        pid: 20884  type: File          15A8: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
firefox.exe        pid: 20884  type: File          3BF4: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_32.db
0

I am not sure if anyone used Process Viewer (PVIEW.exe). I was having trouble finding out the process that locked my epmd.exe which i was trying to delete, when I searched for Process Explorer app in my Windows 10 box - I found this app. So, I thought of giving it a try and it worked (so, this can be another option):

This app existed at the following location for me - C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\Common\Tools\WinNT\Tools\PVIEW.EXE

enter image description here

Look for your locked application (file), and Kill Process to unlock the file.

0

You can also do it programmatically by leveraging on the NTDLL/KERNEL32 Windows API. E.g. have a look at the following code in Python which returns a list of PIDs that can then easily be killed using the Task Manager or similar tools.

import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes

path = r"C:\temp\test.txt"

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# generic strings and constants
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ntdll = ctypes.WinDLL('ntdll')
kernel32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32', use_last_error=True)

NTSTATUS = wintypes.LONG

INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = wintypes.HANDLE(-1).value
FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES = 0x80
FILE_SHARE_READ = 1
OPEN_EXISTING = 3
FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS = 0x02000000

FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS = wintypes.ULONG
FileProcessIdsUsingFileInformation = 47

LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES = wintypes.LPVOID
ULONG_PTR = wintypes.WPARAM


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# create handle on concerned file with dwDesiredAccess == FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

kernel32.CreateFileW.restype = wintypes.HANDLE
kernel32.CreateFileW.argtypes = (
    wintypes.LPCWSTR,      # In     lpFileName
    wintypes.DWORD,        # In     dwDesiredAccess
    wintypes.DWORD,        # In     dwShareMode
    LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES,  # In_opt lpSecurityAttributes
    wintypes.DWORD,        # In     dwCreationDisposition
    wintypes.DWORD,        # In     dwFlagsAndAttributes
    wintypes.HANDLE)       # In_opt hTemplateFile
hFile = kernel32.CreateFileW(
    path, FILE_READ_ATTRIBUTES, FILE_SHARE_READ, None, OPEN_EXISTING,
    FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, None)
if hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE:
    raise ctypes.WinError(ctypes.get_last_error())


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# prepare data types for system call
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

class IO_STATUS_BLOCK(ctypes.Structure):
    class _STATUS(ctypes.Union):
        _fields_ = (('Status', NTSTATUS),
                    ('Pointer', wintypes.LPVOID))
    _anonymous_ = '_Status',
    _fields_ = (('_Status', _STATUS),
                ('Information', ULONG_PTR))


iosb = IO_STATUS_BLOCK()


class FILE_PROCESS_IDS_USING_FILE_INFORMATION(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('NumberOfProcessIdsInList', wintypes.LARGE_INTEGER),
                ('ProcessIdList', wintypes.LARGE_INTEGER * 64))


info = FILE_PROCESS_IDS_USING_FILE_INFORMATION()

PIO_STATUS_BLOCK = ctypes.POINTER(IO_STATUS_BLOCK)
ntdll.NtQueryInformationFile.restype = NTSTATUS
ntdll.NtQueryInformationFile.argtypes = (
    wintypes.HANDLE,        # In  FileHandle
    PIO_STATUS_BLOCK,       # Out IoStatusBlock
    wintypes.LPVOID,        # Out FileInformation
    wintypes.ULONG,         # In  Length
    FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS)  # In  FileInformationClass

# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# system call to retrieve list of PIDs currently using the file
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
status = ntdll.NtQueryInformationFile(hFile, ctypes.byref(iosb),
                                      ctypes.byref(info),
                                      ctypes.sizeof(info),
                                      FileProcessIdsUsingFileInformation)
pidList = info.ProcessIdList[0:info.NumberOfProcessIdsInList]
print(pidList)

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