File won't delete :(

[Hunter2]

Hi guys, I'm having WindowsXP issues again. I just (partially) downloaded an AVI file, then the download cut out. Naturally, I tried deleting the file since it's of no use to me, but it said that the file is "already in use" by a program or another user so it wouldn't let me. So I checked, and I had no other programs running, and there were no processes out of the ordinary, and there were no other users using that file. To be sure, I logged off and then back on, then tried. Same thing. Reboot. Same thing. So I searched for scandisk(?) to see if there is a harddrive error but there doesn't seem to be any scandisk on my computer.

Very frankly, what do I do now?

[confuted]

Close some running processes until you can delete the file. Reboot.

[Hunter2]

Me: Reboot. Same thing [happens].

Confuted: Reboot.

After rebooting, shouldn't the file have been closed already by whatever was using it?

[Hunter2]

Never mind... apparently the problem was that Windows was still trying to determine the format/size/whatever and display a preview of the file. My theory is that Windows was having a hard time doing so, since it's an incomplete file, and so was taking a really really long time, during which the file could not be deleted since Windows was using it... After clicking the file and waiting for a minute or two, I was able to delete it successfully. I appreciate your... advice... though confuted

[confuted]

Hey, I suggested closing running processes and then trying deleting! That works (I think)! The reboot at the end was because you mess stuff up when you close random processes.

[XSquared]

Fire up good ol' cmd.exe and then shut down explorer.exe. You can delete it easily then.

[Hunter2]

Hey, I suggested closing running processes and then trying deleting! That works (I think)! The reboot at the end was because you mess stuff up when you close random processes.

Ah, so THAT's what you meant I often have problems trying to end processes though, since just about all of them are "services being used by Windows".

Fire up good ol' cmd.exe and then shut down explorer.exe. You can delete it easily then.

Ah, I'll file that knowledge away somewhere in my brain. I've already managed to delete the file by out-waiting explorer until it got tired of hogging the file

[Waldo2k2]

that's my favorite feature of NT based systems, if you shut down explorer.exe all you have to do is restart it, it doesn't kill windows like in 9x. Ah, the beauty of a (somewhat) stable OS.