SXI Forum

SeanR

Administrator

Registered: 20-11-2018

Posts: 148

How can I identify what is holding a file/dir open

Sometimes we try to delete or rename a file and we get a message that the file is in use.  If we want to find out what is using this file on Windows we can use Resource Monitor for this which comes built-in with Windows 7, 8, and 10.

1. Open Resource Monitor

   • Found by searching for Resource Monitor on the Start menu

   • Typing resmon.exe in the Run Menu

   • On the Performance tab in your Task Manager
     

2. Go to the CPU tab (1)

   1. Use the search field in the Associated Handles section (2)     
      

   2. When you've found the handle, you can identify the process by looking at the Image and/or PID column.

   3. You can then try to close the application as you normally would, or, if that's not possible, just right-click the handle and kill the process directly from there.

Easy peasy!