Free Unlocker
Smacka Shock
It has many other flavors:
Cannot delete file: Access is denied
There has been a sharing violation.
The source or destination file may be in use.
The file is in use by another program or user.
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.
Of course I only compare here the unlocking features. Process Explorer and Take Control are very good programs featuring much more things than just unlocking folders. The goal of this list is not really to pretend Unlocker is better but instead to provide a list of all other alternative programs in case you have some difficulties with Unlocker.
Unlocker is completely free and will always remain free, which means you can use it free of charge for any purposes. If you are satisfied with Unlocker and want to help Unlocker improve or motivate the development of other quality programs, any amount of donation small or large will be welcome and gratefully appreciated.
This award winning software starts by conducting a deep scan of your registry, checking for file extension errors and other registry conflicts. With RegistryBooster you will see immediate increases in performance and decreases in systemt conflicts.
- New feature: Made it possible to delete deep directory structures and too long path errors (Path too long, Cannot delete file or folder The file name you specified is not valid or too long. Specify a different file name, The filename or extension is too long, Path too deep, Destination Path Too Long, The file could not be accessed, The path you entered, is too long. Enter a shorter path). Try deleting the folder created by this batch file without the new Unlocker you will understand :)
- Improved UI: Progress bar when deleting large folders
- Improved UI: Fixed all references to previous website in UI
- Fixed Bug: Fix crash which happened with deep paths in old versions
- Fixed Bug: Fixed update check to match new Unlocker website ( )
- Fixed Installer: Fixed x64 installer for references to non existing assistant
- Promotional feature: Fully optional Bing or Quickstores toolbar depending on location.
- New feature: Complete support for 64 bit operating systems with signed driver.
- New language: Basque thanks to Beat Antxustegi.
- New language: Galician thanks to Delio Docampo Cordeiro.
- New language: Macedonian thanks to Nikola Trencevski.
- New language: Malaysian thanks to Arjuna Puteraz.
- Improved behavior: No false positives for 32 bit version.
- Improved behavior: Handles are now sorted by process instead of appearing in random order when launching Unlocker.
- Improved UI: Locked DLL show as DLL instead of handle number.
- Improved UI: Fixed same process appearing differently depending on cases.
- Promotional feature: Fully optional eBay shortcuts, Bing or Quickstores toolbar depending on location.
The rumors of me not working on Unlocker have been greatly exaggerated. I have been very busy with pushing the envelope at work, MBA studies during evenings and week-ends, and life during the time left.
Still, I finally had a little time to address all the reported issues on Unlocker, and Unlocker now supports Windows 7. From a x64 stand point, it took me a couple of hours to get it fully working on my machine. I still have to sign the driver which might require a lot of paperwork, but hopefully it will not take long. For the impatient kind, I can provide alpha versions :)
Interestingly, now that I have a x64 machine, I had no alternative than to get Unlocker working. Despite the increased number of ersatz, none of them really did the job and I really had a motivation to get Unlocker working.
Finally, I addressed the topic of false positives with Unlocker on my my blog. There is no malware in Unlocker and there will never be. And for the record I am not the only one having similar issues.
- Fixed bug: Handles should not be missing anymore on Windows7.
- Fixed bug: Potential conflict with regular explorer use when opening multiple files or other shell extensions such as 7-zip.
- Fixed bug: UI should now appear properly when done from clean install.
- Fixed bug: No hangs due to looping junctions should happen anymore.
- Fixed bug: Deleting junctions will not erase original files anymore.
- Fixed bug: Managing your computer on Windows 7 will not crash anymore.
- Fixed bug: Bitmap handles should not leak anymore from the shell extension.
- Fixed bug: Many other potential sources of bugs and crashes.
- Improved behavior: When deleting files they will be sent first to the recycle bin if possible, only if not possible more abrasive deletion will be used.
- Improved behavior: Unlocker can be started directly from the start menu to browse to the desired file or folder.
- Promotional feature: Fully optional eBay shortcuts, Bing or Quickstores toolbar depending on location.
- Improved behavior: Improved the way DLLs are unloaded.
- Promotional feature: Added fully optional shortcuts to eBay during the installation. Simply untick "eBay shortcuts" in the choose components page during install if you do not wish to have those.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker should not create event logs anymore.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker should not take minutes to close on certain configurations anymore.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker should not lock DLLs not used by Unlocker anymore.
- Fixed bug: Fixed potential driver bug.
- Fixed bug: Miscellaneous handle leaks.
- Improved behavior: Improved deleting/renaming/moving files such as C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\Flash9e.ocx for example.
- Improved behavior: When right-clicking files or folders and selecting Unlocker, those are automatically deselected. It helps with movie files and removable drives.
- Improved UI: Icon looks correct now on Windows Vista
- Promotional feature: Added fully optional shortcuts to eBay during the installation. Simply untick "eBay shortcuts" in the choose components page during install if you do not wish to have those.
- Fixed bug: Delete, move and rename should work better now.
- Fixed bug: Non DLL handles are now listed properly on Vista.
- Fixed bug: List files are compatible with Total Commander again. This bug appeared in version 1.7.7. Thanks to Icfu for spotting it.
- Improved behavior: The executable includes a manifest for better Vista compatibility.
- Promotional feature: Added fully optional shortcuts to eBay during the installation. Simply untick "eBay shortcuts" in the choose components page during install if you do not wish to have those.
- New language: Belarusian thanks to Aleg Azarousky
- New feature: Access to Delete / Rename / Move options from command line
- Improved behavior: Power users do not need rights to modify registry anymore to run Unlocker as long as Unlocker was installed by an administrator on the machine
- Fixed bug: Renaming now works again.
- Fixed bug: Renaming and Moving on boot now work again.
- New feature: Unlocker Assistant icon can be hidden from the notification area.
- Improved UI: Better error message in case there is a conflict with Unlocker Assistant.
- Fixed bug: UNC and network paths should now work as intended.
- Fixed bug: Strong delete works again. This bug appeared in version 1.7.7. Index.dat and many more should be deleted without rebooting as before now.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker Assistant will detect if it is already running and will only run one instance.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker Assistant will detect if there a program conflicting and properly exit.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker Assistant closed or potentially crashed explorer. Thanks to Jean-Philippe Mistrot for his patience while testing.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker Assistant launched Unlocker when trying to overwrite a file or folder.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker missed handles at the root of a mapped hard drive.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker failed to list handles on drives that do not allow to create files.
- Fixed bug: Unlocker leaked Icon GDI objects.
- Fixed language: Japanese and Polish languages had character corruptions. Thanks to Catbaron and Keblo for pointing it out.
- New feature: Unlocker Assistant. Unlocker Assistant stays in your system tray bar and automatically launches Unlocker if you are trying to delete/rename/move a file that is locked. So for those who use Unlocker Assistant, no need to right click files or folders anymore. This feature can be deactivated during the install.
- New language: Indonesian thanks to Edi Gunawan Liu
- Improved Installer: Now Unlocker should install well over the previous version without needing to reboot
- New functionality: Unlocker -H or Unlocker -? shows the command line usage
- New functionality: Command line option to generate a log of handles found on a given file
- Fixed bug: Fixed a potential page fault bug in UnlockerDriver5.sys
- Fixed bug: Fixed a bug which caused the locked dll not to appear when right clicking on the root of a drive
- New language: Slovenian thanks to Aleksander 'Quattro' Hropot
- Improved code: Unlocker is now much faster to list handles and to appear. Between 2x and 30x faster depending on the situation. Thanks to schwit for reporting the problem and testing my fixes
- Improved code: Rewrote part of the driver
- Fixed bug: Some processes and their handles were missing depending on their accessing rights, this is fixed now, and ZoneAlarm temporary files handles appear in Unlocker for example. Again thanks to schwit for reporting the problem and testing my fixes
- Fixed bug: If a cd or dvd was removed and a handle was existing, an annoying explorer dialog box would appear and the handle could not be listed
- Fixed bug: Miscellaneous buffers bugs