-- TITLE & VERSION: Unlocker 1.8.3

-- LICENSE: freeware

-- HOMEPAGE: http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

-- Software Publisher's DESCRIPTION: Unlocker is a Windows Explorer extension allowing you with a simple right-click on a file or folder to get rid of error message such as 'error deleting file or folder', 'cannot delete folder: it's being used by another person or program'. Simply right click the folder or file and select Unlocker. If the folder or file is locked, a window listing of lockers will appear. Select the lockers and click Unlock and you are done.

Ever had such an annoying message given by Windows?

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

Unlocker is the solution!

1. Simply right click the folder or file and select Unlocker

2. If the folder or file is locked, a window listing of lockers will appear

3. Simply click Unlock All and you are done!

-- NK's RATING & NOTES:  Utterly indispensable for those who often delete files or folders. I'm one of those and I had tried several other apps before found this little tool. It's definitely the best. Now I don't need to reboot to delete a stubborn file or folder. And everything is under your control: before making a decision to delete a file you can see what's locking it.

NK

Here’s a quick description of how you can use "Unlocker",one of my favorite freeware programs, in order to safely remove a USB or external drive whenever Windows refuses to do it.

One of the things that I find most annoying about Windows is when I use the "Safely Remove Hardware" function to disconnect a flash or external drive and it doesn’t work. What bugs me more is when I am in a hurry and that happens (e.g. I want to grab my USB drive and rush off to catch the bus in time, and Windows announces that "the device … cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later").

I don’t know what other people’s experience is, but I would say for myself that I get this more than 50% of the time, which is why I decided that I would write a posting on how to use Unlocker to work around this issue. Here are the steps (assuming you tried the ’safely remove hardware’ dialog and it didn’t work).