Secondly, there is also a new Proxy/Stub provider found in ieproxy.dll of Internet Explorer (IE ActiveX Interface Marshaling Library). Some interfaces that previously used actxprxy.dll are now registered to use ieproxy.dll.

Now various problematic software (such as Vault 3.x) will try to register against actxproxy using the old GUID, and for interfaces now proxied by ieproxy.dll.

Please read the source yourself (link above) for more details.

It helped me a lot, because noone could really help me, not even here, and i received partially weird

hints of which none helped at all.

only the above batch file helped it.

this will re-appear, so keep that batch file, you will need it from time to time.

How to view open files on Windows Server (2008, 2012 & 2016)

There are times when a file is open on a windows server and you need view what user or process has it open. These open files can be locked and prevent users from editing, cause errors when upgrading software, hold up a reboot and so on.

In this article, I will show you how to quickly view open files on windows server and workstations.

Both methods use built in Windows tools and works on most Windows versions (I’ve tested this on Server 2008, 2012, 2016 and Windows 10).

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like videos or want more details then continue reading.

Recommended Tool: SolarWinds Permissions Analyzer

Now you can quickly see WHO has permission to WHAT and answer the questions that suck up your time and patience.

SolarWinds FREE Permission Analyzer will determine a user’s effective NTFS permissions for a specific file, folder or network share access. The results are displayed in a nifty desktop dashboard.

Method 1: Use Computer Management to view shared files/folder

This first method is used to view open files on a shared folder. This is the best way to troubleshoot locked files that users have left open. If you need to see what process has a file open then check out method 2.

Step 1: Right Click the start menu and select Computer Management

Another way to access computer management is to type in compmgmt.msc into the start menu search box.

You will need to open up this console on the computer or server that has the shared folder. For example, I have a server called file1 with a shared folder named HR. To see the open files on this share I will need to open up the computer management console from the file1 server.

Step 2: Click on Shared Folders, then click on open files

I can now see that the user rallen has the HR folder and the file adpro.txt open.

If I needed to I can right click the file and select “Close Open File”. This is something that needs to be done when a file is locked.

That’s it for method 1.

If you need to check who has permissions to a file or folder then check out my guide How to view NTFS effective permissions.

Methods 2: See process and file details with Resource Monitor

Step 1: Type Resource monitor into the start menu search box

This is the quickest way to access the Resource Monitor.

Another option is to open up the task manager, click the performance tab and then click Open Resource Monitor.

Step 2: Click on the disk tab in resource monitor

Now that I have the resource monitor open I just need to click on the disk tab.

Now I can see all kinds of details about the disk activity such as files open, PID, read and write bytes per second and more.

You can move the columns around so you can see the full file path.

If have a lot of disk activity you go stop the live monitoring so you can view the open file activity.

To stop the live monitoring go to monitor, then select stop monitoring.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more Active Directory Tutorials.

Recommended Tool: SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

This utility was designed to Monitor Active Directory and other critical services like DNS & DHCP. It will quickly spot domain controller issues, prevent replication failures, track failed logon attempts and much more.

What I like best about SAM is it’s easy to use dashboard and alerting features. It also has the ability to monitor virtual machines and storage.

Find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows

How can I find out which process is locking a file or folder in Windows?

For instance, when trying to delete a folder, Windows reports this:

The action can’t be completed because the folder is open in another program

Happens the same with a file, but how do I find out what program or application is currently using it and preventing me from deleting the file or folder?

11 Answers 11

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

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!

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).

Have a look at Process Explorer ( procexp.exe ).

From its introduction:

Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out.

To find out what process is using a specific file follow these steps:

Go to Find, Find Handle or DLL.. or simply press Ctrl + F .

Enter the name of the file and press Search.

Process Explorer will list all processes that have a handle to the file open. Click on an entry to focus the process in the main window.

Optionally, you can then even close the handle manually through the lower pane ( Ctrl + L ):

LockHunter can unlock any handlers that may have locked your files or folders. Unlike similar freewares, it supports both 32 and 64-bit Windows.

It is a free tool to delete files blocked by something you do not know. LockHunter is useful for fighting against malware, and other programs that are blocking files without a reason. Unlike other similar tools it deletes files into the recycle bin so you may restore them if deleted by mistake.

• Shows processes locking a file or folder
• Allows to unlock, delete, copy or rename a locked file
• Allows to kill locking process
• Allows to remove locking processes from hard drive
• Integrates in to Explorer menu
• It deletes files into the recycle bin, so you may restore them if deleted by mistake
• Supports both 32 and 64bit Windows

EMCO UnlockIT can identify the process that has locked the file as well as unlock the file so that you may delete/edit/move it. The program is completely free, though the newer version is a bit slower and more bloated than the original (which had a plain, unskinned GUI, but loaded pretty much instantaneously and without an annoying splash screen). Also, the original version used to pop up automatically whenever the error you mentioned is triggered, allowing you to instantly unlock the file and perform the operation you were attempting.

Still, UnlockIT is an incredibly useful program that provides a basic functionality that is critically missing from Windows. It’s among the standard toolkit of utilities that I install on all Windows computers I work on.

A lot of the programs here are outdated. I finally ended up using nirsoft’s OpenedFilesView which worked really well.

Though the best part is the explorer menu integration, which is easy to enable. As per website

Starting from version 1.10, you can launch OpenedFilesView directly from Windows Explorer, and view only the handles of the file or folder that you want to inspect. In order to enable this feature, check the ‘Enable Explorer Context Menu’ under the Options menu. After you enable this feature, you can right-click on any file or folder on Windows Explorer, and choose the ‘OpenedFilesView’ item from the menu. If you run the OpenedFilesView option for a folder, it’ll display all opened files inside that folder. If you run the OpenedFilesView option for a file, it’ll display all opened handles for that file.