Tool to determine what has locked a file [duplicate]

Solution 1:

PowerShell method:

if ((Test-Path -Path $FileOrFolderPath) -eq $false) {
    Write-Warning "File or directory does not exist."       
}
else {
    $LockingProcess = CMD /C "openfiles /query /fo table | find /I ""$FileOrFolderPath"""
    Write-Host $LockingProcess
}

The openfiles command needs to have support for local files enabled, by running openfiles /local on and restarting.

More details How to find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows ^archive

Solution 2:

You can use the Resource Monitor for this which comes built-in with Windows 7, 8, and 10.

1. Open Resource Monitor, which can be found
   • By searching for Resource Monitor or resmon.exe in the start menu, or
   • As a button on the Performance tab in your Task Manager
2. Go to the CPU tab
3. Use the search field in the Associated Handles section
   • See blue arrow in screen shot below

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

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!

Solution 3:

A couple of options:

Microsoft/SysInternals Process Explorer - Go to Find > Find Handle or DLL. In the "Handle or DLL substring:" text box, type the path to the file (e.g. "C:\path\to\file.txt") and click "Search". All processes which have an open handle to that file should be listed.

WhoLockMe - Explorer extension which adds a right-click menu option

N.B. WhoLockMe appears to not work with Win 10 (at least I have been unable to register it with either of the 32- or 64-bit versions of regsvr32.exe).