You may have encountered the "File in use" errors when deleting files/folders, especially when clearing out the Temp folder. To successfully delete the temporary files which are in use, you need to determine the process name which has locked the file, and then close the corresponding application first. In Windows 7, the File In Use dialog has improved, as it displays the name of the process which has locked the file.

Here is how the File In Use dialogs appear in various Windows Operating Systems

Windows XP

Windows Vista

Windows 7


Fig 3: File In Use dialog in Windows 7, showing the process name / handle (Internet Explorer)

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5 Responses to “File in Use Dialog in Windows 7 Also Displays the Process Name” Subscribe to comments!

  1. said this on Monday, February 9th 2009 1:30 am

    Hi,

    looks like Windows 7 does it itself when you open file with the WIN32 API.

    André

  2. said this on Sunday, February 8th 2009 9:53 am

    I don’t understand why IE (in Vista) does not implement the interface but IE in W7 does? Those two examples (screenshots 2 & 3) involve IE only. To better explain this, see this screenshot:

    http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/temp/w7-fiu.png
    http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/temp/vista-fiu.png
    http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/temp/vista-fiu-2.png

    In both the occasions, the executable file (clsidviewer.exe) is the same. I’m the author of that proggie and I haven’t implemented the IFileInUse interface.

  3. said this on Saturday, February 7th 2009 10:47 pm

    Windows Explorer calls it too in Vista, but the application that opens the file must implement the inferface. Here is an example of an opened Word File which I try to delete under Vista Sp1.

    http://www.pic-upload.de/07.02.09/bben2p.png

  4. said this on Saturday, February 7th 2009 6:46 pm

    @Andre: Thanks! Does that mean that Windows Explorer in Vista does not call/use this function, but Windows 7 Explorer does?

  5. said this on Saturday, February 7th 2009 5:46 pm

    Hi,

    the Information about the application is also displayed under Vista if the Application implements the IFileIsInUse Inferface ;) This is not a new feature from Windows 7

    André

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