For example, you could use a program to schedule a file deletion when you next restart your computer-the file will be automatically deleted when you reboot. There are a variety of other ways to delete locked files. Delete (or move) the file in safe mode and restart your computer. If you’re using Windows 8 or 10, you’ll have to access safe mode from the boot options menu.

If you’re on Windows 7, press the F8 key during the startup process and select Safe Mode to boot into safe mode. If the file is being locked by a startup program, you can boot to safe mode to delete it instead. RELATED: Three Ways to Access the Windows 10 and 8 Boot Options Menu You should be able to delete, move, or rename the file as soon as Windows comes back up.

If you have a stubborn file or folder and don’t want to use any of the tricks here, you can try restarting your computer. Generally, a file won’t be locked after you restart your computer-unless the program that locked it is a startup program that locks the file as soon as you log in. Just click the arrow to the right of the “Unlock” button. In fact, the IOBit Unlocker application has easy “Unlock & Delete”, “Unlock & Rename”, and “Unlock & Move” options. Once the file is unlocked, you can delete, move, or rename it normally. You’ll lose any unsaved data in any program killed this way. You can also click the “Forced Mode” checkbox and then click “Unlock” to forcibly close whatever program is locking access to the file. This method unlocks the file while leaving the process running. Note that this may cause problems if a process expects exclusive access to a file.

You can quickly unlock the file by clicking the “Unlock” button. You’ll see a list of processes that have locked the file or folder. After you install the program, you can right-click a stubborn file or folder and select “IObit Unlocker” to open the app with that file selected.

It even puts a command for unlocking files right on the context menu. IObit Unlocker is a useful utility for unlocking files, and it’s free. You can now delete or modify the file normally. Right-click the handle and select “Close Handle.” If multiple processes are listed in the search window, you’ll have to repeat this step to close the handle for each process.

How to lock a folder windows 10