Writes the file is occupied by another program. Use a bootable USB flash drive or disk

It's no secret that in systems Windows programs can use some files at the same time. As a rule, this applies system components, and when opening some application to which such a file is associated, or when trying uninstall Windows informs the user that the system or user file busy with another program. What to do? Is it a game, a torrent application or even a regular one? office editor, - doesn't matter. This does not change the essence of the problem. But let's see what can be done in such a situation.

The file is occupied by another program: what does this mean?

Actually, the essence of the issue is that a certain component in this moment uses not one, but two or more applications. In particular, this applies not only to running user programs, but also system services running in the background.

As a rule, the problem of a file being occupied by another program when trying to access it mostly concerns device drivers, but there are exceptions. In the very simple case An example can be given where a user simultaneously opens a document, say, first in Word and then in WordPad, and tries to save changes in one of these applications. Naturally, the system begins to, as they say, spit. The same applies, for example, to cases of using a webcam, when priority is assigned Skype program, and the user tries to launch another application, which in theory should also use it. And these are not isolated cases.

Quite often other situations occur when the file is occupied by another program. What to do? The torrent file cannot be deleted! Why? Yes, simply because it is in the active download stage in the application itself (BitTorrent, uTorrent, etc.). You can get out of this situation quite simply by completing the download or distribution in the program or simply deleting the download from the list. But this is the simplest thing that can be. Usually the situation is much more complicated.

The file is occupied by another program: what to do in the simplest case

As a rule, most ordinary users do not particularly want to delve into the essence of what is happening. The system reports that the file is in use by another program. Almost all users of this contingent know what to do.

What exactly? Right! They simply reboot the computer. By the way, this primitive method helps in absolutely all cases, however, this only applies to completion active processes related to the system itself. If the work was carried out with documents in which changes were made, there is no need to talk about any preservation. And many simply do not take this into account, and then begin to bite their elbows.

Force termination of a blocking process

The best option to get out of this situation would be to check the blocking process. How to find out which process is using a file? Yes, very simple! To do this, you should use the well-known “Task Manager”, which can be called by the combination Ctrl + Del + Alt (Ctrl + Esc + Alt) or the taskmgr command from the “Run” menu (Win + R). If the user even approximately understands which application can access the file at the moment, you just need to find it in the list of active processes or services and apply force termination process with the corresponding button or through context menu right click.

But this method is only suitable for those cases when it is possible to guess which process can access the the specified file. But if you don’t have even an approximate idea, it’s better to use the utility Process Explorer, which can be downloaded from official resource Microsoft.

Problems deleting files

Quite often situations may arise when the system, when trying to delete it, reports that the file is occupied by another program. We’ll look at what to do a little later, but for now a few words about which components may be impossible to remove.

Most often this concerns system components that are vital for Windows operation or partially related to these processes (although there are other situations). In this case, no administrator rights help, no matter how hard you try (the system itself blocks actions that could harm it). However, even in such a situation there is a way out. There are at least two options.

Using the Unlocker utility

So, the system reports that the file is occupied by another program. What to do in this case? You can use a unique Unlocker utility. In some Windows builds it is already there from the very beginning. If it is not there, the application will have to be downloaded and installed.

The program then integrates its own command lines into the right-click menu. Now you need to call up this menu and use the Unlocker command, select the process in the application window, and then click the “Kill process” button at the bottom. Once completed, you can perform any operations on the file.

Changing access rights

Now let's look at another situation with attempts to delete some data. In this case, the system also reports that the file is occupied by another program. What to do in such a situation? To delete so-called non-deletable files and folders, you just need to grant yourself the necessary rights.

This can be done in the context menu of right-clicking on an object in the properties section. Here you will need to go to the security tab, click the “Advanced” button and change the current owner, then return to the previous window and use the “Change” button, and then in the menu check the boxes opposite all the lines in the list.

Once all these operations are completed, the file can be deleted without problems.

Other situations and solutions

It also happens that games don’t want to work. Again, the system reports that a file is occupied by another program. What to do? SpinTires (a truck racing simulator) also gives an error that the files are different from the original.

In this case, this can only mean that the game was downloaded from an unreliable source, and therefore both launch and access to online playthrough are blocked. The solution may be to re-download official version or installing special “fixes” to eliminate problems with operation.

Conclusion

As we can see, the situation is not critical. If for some reason the system reports that the file is occupied by another program, what to do and what decision to make to fix the problem can be understood from everything proposed. Actually, any method the user chooses can solve this situation. What to prefer? Many people advise using Unlocker, since this is the simplest solution, because constantly terminating some blocking process can become quite problematic. In some cases, you can use optimizers with fine tuning startup, but if you exclude some important ones from it system processes, there is no guarantee that Windows will work correctly or boot upon restart. And this is even if most of these applications are not believed to cause harm to the system. In general, in any case, caution does not hurt, so be vigilant.

When a file is opened by one program or another, access to it is temporarily blocked. Typically, the lock lasts only until the contents of the file are read and transferred to RAM, which usually does not take much time, and after that the file can be accessed by any other application or service to work in the same way " block - read - unblock." However, there are times when a program retains the lock even after reading the file. This can happen either by mistake or due to the specifics of the program itself. In any case, further interaction with this file will be impossible, and attempts to edit, delete, move or open it in another program will result in various messages indicating that the file you are looking for is blocked, inaccessible, in use, or even that you do not have enough rights to access it.

The easiest way to resolve this issue is to terminate the application that is preventing further interaction with the file. But figuring out what exactly this program is can be quite difficult, because the “culprit” could be some background process. You can cope with this task using terminal.

The "lsof" command displays a list of all files that are currently open in a particular program. Since the list can be quite long, and we only need information on one file, we can filter by its name. To do this, launch Terminal from the Utilities folder and enter the command lsof | grep filename Where filename— name of the file you are looking for.

As an alternative, you can use the "fuser" script included with OS X. This script also uses the "lsof" command, but its output is easier to read. The script checks whether the file you specify is currently in use, and, if so, by which process.

Run Terminal from the Utilities folder and enter the fuser command /path/to/file Where /path/to/file— full path to the desired file. To enter it, just drag and drop required file out the window terminal.

Once we know the process ID, we can start Resource monitoring and determine which program it corresponds to (to simplify your search, you can sort by PID by clicking on the title of the corresponding column). If the required ID is assigned to a user program, and not to some utility service, you should first try to terminate its operation regular means, through GUI. If this cannot be done, you can sequentially try several options available in the window System monitoring. Highlight required process and go to the View menu - Send a signal to the process. Then select one of the signals described below from the drop-down menu and click the “Submit” button. Alternatively, again, you can use Terminal.

1. Lost connection (SIGHUP)

This signal will force the process to release the resources it is using. Typically, the result is that the program simply updates its configuration and continues to work. To send such a signal using terminal, enter the command kill -1 PID Where PID— Process ID that we found out earlier.

2. Terminate (SIGTERM) and Abort (SIGINT)

This standard signal, which the command receives upon normal completion of its work. In this case, the program will first save all changes and its configuration, and only then exit. To do this in the window terminal you can enter one of the commands below.

To end: kill PID or kill -15 PID

To interrupt: kill -2 PID

3. Force quit (SIGKILL)

If you are trying to terminate a program but nothing happens, you are most likely sending a signal normal completion(SIGTERM) or interruptions (SIGINT) work, and in some cases they can be ignored. To get around this you can try to force quit problematic application using the "SIGKILL" signal. To do this using terminal, enter the command: kill -9 PID

Once the problematic program is closed, you will most likely be able to freely interact with the file in question and open it in any program of your choice.

If the above steps do not work, you can always restart your computer, which may also solve your problem.

For the original material that served as the basis for writing this article, we once again thank Christopher Kessler.

It's no secret that on Windows systems programs can use some files at the same time. As a rule, this concerns system components, and when opening an application to which such a file is associated, or when trying to uninstall it, Windows informs the user that the system or user file is occupied by another program. What to do? It doesn’t matter whether it’s a game, a torrent application, or even a regular office editor. This does not change the essence of the problem. But let's see what can be done in such a situation.

The file is occupied by another program: what does this mean?

Actually, the essence of the issue is that a certain component is currently using not one, but two or more applications. In particular, this applies not only to running user programs, but also to system services running in

As a rule, the problem of a file being occupied by another program when trying to access it mostly concerns device drivers, but there are exceptions. In the simplest case, an example would be that a user simultaneously opens a document, say, first in Word and then in WordPad, and tries to save changes in one of these applications. Naturally, the system begins to, as they say, spit. The same applies, for example, to cases of using a webcam, when Skype is assigned priority, and the user is trying to launch another application, which in theory should also use it. And these are not isolated cases.

Quite often other situations occur when the file is occupied by another program. What to do? The torrent file cannot be deleted! Why? Yes, simply because it is in the active download stage in the application itself (BitTorrent, uTorrent, etc.). You can get out of this situation quite simply by completing the download or distribution in the program or simply from the list. But this is the simplest thing that can be. Usually the situation is much more complicated.

The file is occupied by another program: what to do in the simplest case

As a rule, most ordinary users do not particularly want to delve into the essence of what is happening. The system reports what almost all users of this contingent know.

What exactly? Right! They simply reboot the computer. By the way, this primitive method helps in absolutely all cases, however, this only applies to the completion of active processes associated with the system itself. If the work was carried out with documents in which changes were made, there is no need to talk about any preservation. And many people simply don’t take this into account, and then start

Force termination of a blocking process

The best option to get out of this situation would be to check the blocking process. How to find out which process is using a file? Yes, very simple! To do this, you should use the well-known “Task Manager”, which can be called by the combination Ctrl + Del + Alt (Ctrl + Esc + Alt) or the taskmgr command from the “Run” menu (Win + R). If the user even approximately understands which application can access the file at the moment, you just need to find it in the list of active processes or services and force the process to end using the appropriate button or through the right-click context menu.

But this method is only suitable for those cases where it is possible to guess which process can access the specified file. But if you don’t have even an approximate idea, it’s better to use a utility that can be downloaded from the official Microsoft resource.

Problems deleting files

Quite often situations may arise when the system, when trying to delete it, reports that the file is occupied by another program. We’ll look at what to do a little later, but for now a few words about which components may be impossible to remove.

Most often this concerns system components that are vital for the operation of Windows or are partially related to these processes (although there are other situations). In this case, no administrator rights help, no matter how hard you try (the system itself blocks actions that could harm it). However, even in such a situation there is a way out. There are at least two options.

Using the Unlocker utility

So, the system reports that the file is occupied by another program. What to do in this case? You can use the unique Unlocker utility. Some builds of Windows already have it. If it is not there, the application will have to be downloaded and installed.

The program then integrates its own command lines into the right-click menu. Now you need to call up this menu and use the Unlocker command, select the process in the application window, and then click the “Kill process” button at the bottom. Once completed, you can perform any operations on the file.

Changing access rights

Now let's look at another situation with attempts to delete some data. In this case, the system also reports that the file is occupied by another program. What to do in such a situation? To delete so-called non-deletable files and folders, you just need to grant yourself the necessary rights.

This can be done by right-clicking on the object in the properties section. Here you will need to go to the security tab, click the “Advanced” button and change the current owner, then return to the previous window and use the “Change” button, and then in the menu check the boxes opposite all the lines in the list.

Once all these operations are completed, the file can be deleted without problems.

Other situations and solutions

It also happens that games don’t want to work. Again, the system reports that a file is occupied by another program. What to do? SpinTires (a truck racing simulator) also gives an error that the files are different from the original.

In this case, this can only mean that the game was downloaded from an unreliable source, and therefore both launch and access to online playthrough are blocked. The solution may be to re-download the official version or install special “fixes” to fix problems with operation.

Conclusion

As we can see, the situation is not critical. If for some reason the system reports that the file is occupied by another program, what to do and what decision to make to fix the problem can be understood from everything proposed. Actually, any method the user chooses can solve this situation. What to prefer? Many people advise using Unlocker, since this is the simplest solution, because constantly terminating some blocking process can become quite problematic. In some cases, you can use optimizers to fine-tune startup, but if you exclude some important system processes from it, there is no guarantee that Windows will work correctly or will boot when you restart. And this is even if most of these applications are not believed to cause harm to the system. In general, in any case, caution does not hurt, so be vigilant.

this often happens when certain files are not deleted. And the system writes that this file or the folder is occupied by another process. This can happen both in Windows XP and in Windows 7, 8, 10. Today we will look at troubleshooting methods similar problem, When files are not deleted.

So, imagine, you installed some program on your computer, used it, and you didn’t like it. What are your actions? Of course, delete it. After uninstallation, the program was allegedly removed, but the folder with some program files remained. When you try to delete such a file, an error appears:

Let's look at ways in which you can delete files that cannot be deleted using standard means.

1st method. Simplest
If the file is not deleted, restart your computer and try deleting again. In many cases this helps. If the problem persists, then read below.

2nd method. Task Manager
In the operating room Windows system 7 and XP, to get to the Task Manager, you need to press the key combination Ctrl + Alt + Del.
In Windows 8 and 10, just press the combination Windows keys+ X and select Task Manager from the menu that appears.

The Task Manager we called will open, where you need to find the process that is using the file and remove the task from it. Then try deleting the file again.

3rd method. Usage boot disk or flash drives
The next method is to start the computer with LiveCD or a bootable USB flash drive and then deleting the file or folder. In the first case, we need to use a standard graphic Windows interface to find and delete the required file, or use the command line. If you use bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7, 8 or 10, then during installation you can call command line by pressing Shift keys+ F10. There is also “System Restore”, thanks to which you can return the computer to its previous state. By the way, the drive letters may be different, so use the dir c: command to display the contents of that drive. Thanks to this, you can easily understand what kind of local disk it is.

4th method. Deleting files in safe mode
It's very simple here. You need to go into safe mode, find the required file or folder and delete it. Only programs run in safe mode operating system, while all your installed third party utilities(messengers, drivers, antiviruses, etc.) do not start. Therefore, the probability of successful removal required file very high.

5th method. Using a special Unlocker programs
This program, called Unlocker, helps delete files that are used by some process. Very useful utility, coping with her tasks with a bang. You can download it at https://yadi.sk/d/PkczjpOKjbeje

When the program downloads, install it.

Next, select Advanced and uncheck all the boxes,

The essence of the Unlocker program is downloading from random access memory processes that are used by the file. The program can find and terminate a process that is even hidden in the Task Manager. All in all great utility, which every system administrator should have.

I was looking at my work calendar when Outlook 2010 suddenly reported an error and closed. After restarting, it was unable to open the OST file, and today I will tell you how I solved this problem in three minutes.

When launching the program, it gave the following error:

At work, I have an OS and programs with an English interface, so I will provide the equivalent error text from the Russian version of Office.

Exited Microsoft Outlook without closing the file properly Outlook data. You need to restart Microsoft Outlook. If the error persists, contact support.

The message was not very informative, but the launch mail client in safe mode by holding down Ctrl key, didn't change anything.

I opened the program folder and launched the diagnostic utility scanpst.exe. She couldn't fix the problem, but she gave a specific direction to search.

The essence of the message was that the OST file was occupied by some other application, which was an obstacle for Outlook. Have you already guessed which utility I launched next?

This solved the problem! Mail program started up fine and I was back to work.

What to do if your webcam is being used by another application

In the comments, reader Igor asked if it was possible to use Process Explorer to determine which application is using the webcam. Yes, the process is similar, but you need to look for:

I know that Unlocker exists, but I still had to download it, and the Process Explorer utility was at hand. Moreover, the morality of the recording is not only in these two programs. After all, before using them, it was necessary to find the cause of the problem.

Upd. 11-Mar-13. I would like to supplement the note with points that emerged in its discussion:

• If you don't have anything at hand, you can try to rename the file. Explorer can suggest a program that uses it.
• In Windows 7 and higher, you can use the built-in Resource Monitor (resmon) program, where there is a search for descriptors on the CPU tab.
• Utility