It sometimes happens that when you’re working away on your PC, perhaps giving it a manual cleanup trying clear out redundant installation left overs, sometimes there will be a file or two that just shouldn’t be there. But when you try to delete, copy or move it, one of the dreaded ‘Cannot delete files: Access is denied’ or ‘The file you’re trying to modify is being used by Windows or other application’ messages pop up. It can be a bit frustrating because quite often there doesn’t appear to be an obvious reason as to why it’s stuck in place and what’s got a hold of it.
These files are called locked files because they are still being used by a Windows process or service and cannot be touched until Windows has finished with the file and it gets released. This can occur straight after a software uninstall when a reboot is needed to complete the process. There is sometimes a way to remove a locked file by renaming it first and then deleting it, and this has worked quite a lot over the years, but more often than not, it won’t.
Perhaps the most well known file unlock utility is Unlocker which has done a pretty decent job over the years. There are plenty of other options to choose from though, and one such alternative is File Governor. It’s from NoVirusThanks.org and comes as a portable zip or setup installer. Do note that the portable version will give you access to both the 32bit and 64bit executables, so make sure you use the correct one for your operating system.
When the executable is run, you will be presented with a blank window. Right click or go to the ‘File’ menu and choose ‘Search for locked files’, then point to the folder where there are one or more troublesome files. The list of locked files in the folder will then be displayed showing the locked object and the process that has a hold on it. If the process is one you recognise and can be closed without causing system issues, you can either close it yourself, or right click and ‘Terminate Process’. Alternatively, you can copy, rename or try to delete the file causing the lock as long as you know it isn’t a critical windows file.
If you can’t, or don’t want to terminate the process that has a lock on your file, then you can try to release it by right clicking and selecting ‘Unlock’, or ‘Unlock All’ to unlock everything in the list. If the handle for the file is ‘DLL’ then using the ‘Unload DLL’ option will be available and will try to unload it from memory with the intention of breaking the lock on the file.
A couple of other useful things in the program worth mentioning, are the ‘Settings’ >> ‘Configure’ window gives you the option to include File Governor in the Window Explorer Context menu and also enables putting it in the Windows ‘Send To’ menu as well. The ‘Utilities’ menu enables quick access to some convenient Windows functions like Task Manager and Services Manager.
File Governor is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 32 and 64 bit.
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