Cannot delete file: Access is denied

Contributor Icon Contributed by Hack_Vista Date Icon April 12, 2006  
Tag Icon Tagged: Windows

How many times have you seen this error? If I want to delete a file, I WANT TO DELETE THE FILE! At least windows should tell you, who is locking the file, right? Here are some helpful hints to get you around this common windows problem.


You’ve seen these errors. So painful.

Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Cannot delete file: Access is denied.
The file is in use by another program or user.
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.

First I would suggest trying to find out why the file is locked. If it is spyware or a critical process, you may want to know that such a problem exists. WhoLockMe will allow you to right-click any file and see what program is locking the file. A more powerful version of this is actually unlocker than will allow you to kill the processes that are locking file file and delete them automatically.

If you want to try to avoid installing more software, you can try these helpful hints in the prior recipe:
Access Denied — How to Delete Protected or Spyware Files. By using these techniques, many times you’ll be able to close the locking program and continue with your day without downloading additional software.

How to delete locked files is one of the most requested problems at my PC shop. Maybe, this will keep me off the phone!

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  • icanhelp
    Most times when this this happens the first thing i try to do is rename the file. I usually get an access is denied error for that as well, but if the file has subfolders try renaming those too. This usually doesn't work but it does for some files.
  • Anon
    far too many ads on this page, it actually put you off wanting to read it!
  • shashi
    thanks the wholockme program helped me a lot....!!
  • sknyer
    If you cannot delete a file or directors, probably it might be corrupted. In such cases no tools will work. Just apply the Command C:/chkdsk/f from windows command prompt. this turn the corrupted file and directory to normal status and you can delete the file easily as you do usually.

    sknyer - the superwiz tech -
  • Sharon
    thanks for giving a straight answer and not sending me to a "you need a registry scan site" we know the purpose of those sites, to earn commissions.

    your site is very helpful and valuable. i am bookmarking it.

    i'll be back...

    hasta la vista, baby
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