How to Delete Undeletable Folders and Files

One of the most annoying things for a computer user is when you are trying to delete files and find you cannot delete them for one reason or another. Either the file or folder is in use, or it is being used by another person on the network or program and sometimes you just cannot delete it for no real reason at all. There are some ways around this in Windows and by taking the time to learn how to do it, you can delete those pesky files and folders with little trouble at all.

Your first step when trying to delete a stubborn file should be to track down what is using it. You can do this by opening up Windows Task Manager and going through the list to see what should not normally be open. You must do this with caution, because if you end the wrong task, you can cause a cataclysmic system failure that could do more harm than good. If you find the right program or task, you can end it then delete the file without problem. This is usually the case when it comes to movies, pictures, Word documents and other files that might be lagging thanks to an opened program that did not close properly or is otherwise being slow to completely shut down.

If that does not work, it is possible that there is a reason why you cannot delete the particular file or folder. Since the trick above works nine out of ten times, you may want to research the file and folder to see what uses it in regards to your system configuration. Once you discover its use, you may find you can or cannot delete it, but you will know for sure one way or another if it is safe to eliminate it from your system.

As always, you want to be careful of what folders and files you are deleting. In most cases, there is a reason why they are not meant to be deleted. So, delete files at your own risk and take the time to figure out why they are locked down before you go through with it.