Sunday, January 6, 2013

[SOLVED] the action can't be completed because the file is open in windows explorer mkv file

There was  movie on my hard disk which has mkv format and When I'm going to delete that mkv file, it is prompted with following error message.
" the action can't be completed because the file is open in windows explorer "


the action can't be completed because the file is open in windows explorer


 

 and it doesn't allow me to delete it at all. I restarted my computer and try to delete it but same error no luck. Finally I have found a solution , it was very simple than I thought . This is what I have done

[1] open command promt

for windows 7 , click start and type cmd

[2] Change the directory where delete file is located

in my case, file is at Desktop and I used following command to change the directory
cd c:\Users\Admin\Desktop

Now try to delete file using command line , issue following command
del "file name"

but you will get an error message similar to following for sure :) don't worry !!
" The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. "



The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
























[3] Disable "explorer.exe"

open the task manager , select "Process" tab and select "explorer.exe" from the process list and click "End Process" button
Now every thing should be vanished except command promt and Task manager , don't be confused we will get back them all later :D

[4] Delete the mkv file

Now again issue del command , this time it should be executed and you will get no error messages.
ok , big step is done , now time to get back desktop and task bar

[5] bring back desktop and task bar

type explorer.exe on command prompt . how simple it is :))


10 comments:

  1. Thank you so much. That bloody file was driving me crazy, and your solution worked perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are amazing. Everything I tried failed and the file was seriously starting to (various swear words hear) me off. The screen shot of the cmd really helped, thank you so very much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Finally! I've had this movie sucking up space on my hard drive for months now. This worked perfectly, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic. great work. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  5. What if you only want to move the file, NOT delete it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. It doesn't let you delete from D drive or an external hard drive using this method!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Another method I figured out:
    crtl Alt Del
    Run Task Manager
    File
    New Task
    Click Browse
    Change the radio dial in the lower right to all files.
    Then navigate and change and paste whatever you need.


    ReplyDelete
  8. Superb Pete W. This worked out for me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Worked perfectly on a stubborn video file. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  10. unfortunately it didnt work for me... its still showing the error message... tried both the command prompt method & Pete's method... can anyone pls suggest another method for me... I even cleared the temp files & defragmented the drive...

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts