Can't delete file!

[Mesmerist]

Ok, so I was downloading some, umm... educational videos off of KaZaA. One of the videos is just spam advertisements. No problem, I'll just delete it, right? Wrong! It won't let me. When I try to do anything to it, a box pops up that says...

"Error Deleting File or Folder. Cannot delete FILENAMEOFEDUCATIONALVIDEO.avi. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again."

I've tried moving to Recycle Bin, Shift-Deleting, renaming the file, moving the file to another folder, adding it to a zip file, you name it. It won't let me touch it. Of course, my concern is that this is a virus, maybe a trojan of some kind. There's no telling what the file is doing. Although, a virus scan doesn't catch anything.

So, is there any easy way to get rid of this hellspawned file once and for all? I mean, it's MY computer! There must be a way!

Help! Thanks. 😉

 

[amdskip]

alt ctrl delete

shut down the service using it

throw it away🙂

 

[Yomicron]

This is a common problem, there is a permenant fix some where, but I don't know where it is.

but try this,
go to the folder using a command propmpt and type

dir /x

to get the short name of the file, now type

del <insert short file name here>

(which in your example would be del FILENA~1)

 

[bozo1]

Open up a command prompt window.
CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up Task Manager.
End the explorer.exe process but leave Task Manager running. (not iexplore)
Delete the file from the command prompt.
In Task Manager, do a File, New Task (Run) and type in explore.exe.

Voila.

 

[Mesmerist]

Yomicron's method did the trick. Thanks a lot pal!