cannot rename/move file... win XP

I often move my images around my hard drive and onto external drives as well. Once in a while I get a message that I am unable to move or rename a file like the message below:

"cannot rename/move file xxxx . It is being used by another person OR program.

Close all programs and try again."

The only solution seems to shut down the computer and when it reboots it will let me move or rename.

I do not usually have any other programs running so I do not see why it would tell me it is in use???

Help

That sometimes happens in WinXP when you modify or open a file in an application like Photoshop, for example, then as long as the Process is still active in Win XP, the file is "captive" and will not be moved or deleted. You could close all open applications. If that doesn't work, rebooting ends the active process. Or, you could hit CTR-ALT-DEL, go to the Processes tab, and end the process for the specific application directly.

BTW... If you're moving files, especially to another physical drive, make sure you COPY, not CUT. You want to verify that the file(s) got transferred to the other dive successfully before removing/deleting from the original location.

If you use power tools that help in renaming or CR2 previewers, those usually don't help.

I've had Windows Explorer itself keep some sort of lock on a file. If I shut down all instances of it and re-open Explorer it usually clears up if I truly don't have anything else open.

Try this:

Unlocker

It will tell you the process and allow you to kill it.

This is something that's been improved in Windows 7, it's actually more informative.

Faolan wrote in post #8695731
Try this:

Unlocker

It will tell you the process and allow you to kill it.

This is something that's been improved in Windows 7, it's actually more informative.

Unlocker is a great tool, I can highly recommend it. It saves a lot of frustration!

Thanks for the info.

Thank you...