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To delete or modify a file, it must be free of other processes. If some program is already using it, the system imposes a prohibition on editing the element, as this will damage the operation of the software. In this scenario, the message “The process cannot access the file because this file is being used by another process” appears. To fix this, you need to release it. Only now it is much more difficult to do this than it seems at first glance.

Why “The process cannot access the file”?

Only one program can work with a specific file at a time. We are not talking about shared libraries, which are used only for retrieving data, but about elements intended for rewriting. If it is a cache file for a game, it contains user information, or there is ongoing processing and Windows imposes a restriction. These files become inaccessible for deletion or manual modification until we complete the process using them.

How can I delete a file if the process cannot access the file?

Following the logical chain, to delete any file, you must first unload it from RAM and from all programs. As soon as it is no longer used by the system in some processes, the element will immediately become available for deletion.

The main difficulty in this question is finding a process that uses a particular file. This is not always obvious. It often happens that the image is used by some kind of game, browser, torrent, media player. If you first think about a picture viewer, you are wrong. We need to look much deeper.

How can you solve the problem “the process cannot access the file”:

• Unlocker – a special program created just for such situations. It automatically detects the processes associated with the file and terminates them. In fact, it does the same thing that needs to be done manually, but only in automatic mode. It has a minimal size and has been tested on many systems, so it is definitely not infected with viruses. After downloads and installation, you need to right-click on the file and select “Unlock”.
• End related processes… It is usually quite realistic to guess which task is using the file. To do this, open Ctrl + Shift + Esc and expand the “Details” list. There will be quite a few processes here, but most of them are system ones, you need to find those that were started by the user. To delete the Google Chrome cache file, you need to close all Google tasks. To complete them, you need to right-click and select “End task”.

• Set correct attributes… You can set appropriate privileges for each file. You need to right-click on the file and set the “Read only” item on the “General” tab. After restarting the computer, the uninstall option may appear.
• Safe Mode Removal… Very often this works, since with this method of launching the system does not load all extraneous programs. You need to click on restarting the PC and at the time of launch press the F8 key (it may be different) to select the launch option. In safe mode, you can delete almost any file.
• Unprotect the disc for writing… It can be installed at the software and physical level. First of all, you need to look at the drive (usually a USB flash drive) to see if there is a special toggle switch. There should be a corresponding mark next to it. In the system, in the registry editor, you should also find the WriteProtect parameter and set it to 0.

How do I fix the problem when using the console and IIS?

The exact same “process cannot access the file” error can appear when running the netsh command or when configuring an IIS site. In this case, the problem may be caused by a lack of rights to perform an action, an attempt to connect to busy ports 80 and 443, or an incorrect registry setting.

3 ways to fix the error:

• Launch an elevated console… To do this, in the Start menu, you need to enter “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”.
• Switch to a different pool IP addresses… It can also work if there is a conflict between DNS and Quickbooks. It is enough to execute the command netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport tcp start = 10000 num = 1000 – then the same one, but instead of tcp you should enter udp.
• Eliminate port conflicts… You should start the console with admin rights, insert netstat -ano and see if ports 80 and 443 are busy. If they are not used, you will have to go to the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services HTTP Parameters ListenOnlyList in the registry editor. Now in the console you should enter net stop http and only 0.0.0.0 should be left in the ListenOnlyList registry value. It remains only to start the service again net start http… If the ports are busy, you need to either free them or redefine them.

The above steps are sufficient to fix the “Process cannot access file” problem. After completing the procedures, you can either delete the file or restore Windows IIS 6.0 and 7.0 to normal operation.