Computer Realm

At some point or the other, you might have come across an “Access Denied” or “Cannot delete file or folder” message when you try to delete a file.

This could be due to many factors; the file is in use by another application or it maybe even the source of a virus. While most of the time restarting the computer removes the lock on the file you are trying to delete, some of the files are more stubborn and are virtually permanently locked. That’s where Unlocker comes in.

Unlocker is a tiny (setup is only 230K), simple utility that lets you fix this problem. All you have to do is install the application with their simple, common ‘wizard like’ install and then if you have installed the application with its default settings you’ll find ‘Unlocker’ attached to a file’s context (right-click) menu.

If you need to ‘unlock’ and eventually delete your locked file first you have to right click the file, click ‘Unlocker’, you’ll then be shown a list of (or maybe just one) applications/processes that are using the file and all you have to do is click ‘unlock’ if its one process or ‘unlock all’ if it’s more than one file. Once the file has been successfully ‘unlocked’, the file can be deleted.

The application is totally safe (tested with Kaspersky and Ad Aware) and simple to install and use while some Anti-virus programs may flag the application as risk ware if you try to unlock a file which is in use by the Anti-virus program. (I’m yet to experience anything like that though)

The application has been ‘top rated’ and picked up by editors in many software portals as well which you can see on their home page. The publisher also provides a table with a comparison with other similar programs using a ‘tick/cross’ presentation to highlight the application’s features in the home page which you can see below:

Bear in mind that you should only unlock an application if you are sure you didn’t initiate something which is using the file as the application forces the process using it to free the file, if you don’t know why the application is ‘locked’ though I think is pretty safe as it’s probably locked by a virus or for some other not so critical reason.

One last thing, since you want be needing the application a lot you might not like the context menu ‘crowded’ because of the ‘Unlocker’ entry, so you can also configure the ‘Unlocker’ entry to be in the ’send to’ part of the menu to keep things cleaner.

Having trouble with the application? Leave a comment.

Visit the Unlocker Home page.

Related posts:

1. Q & A - Nvidia Geforce Troubleshoot
2. Can’t open your drive by double clicking on it?
3. WinRAR Overview | Review
4. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Overview | Review
5. Foxit or Adobe Reader?

Popularity: 54% [?]