How to unlock and delete MKV files – file is used by Windows Explorer
Yes, happened to me too …. friend sent me a media file encoded in mkv format and I was able to play it under Windows 7, copy to my external hard drivedrive but could not delete from the disk. Once I clicked on the file and selected DELETE error message shows up:
…file is in use by Windows Explorer
Here are steps how you can delete the file from your disk:
- Go to START > RUN , type cmd, right click on cmd and make sure you select run as administrator
- Once you have the screen open navigate to the folder where is the file
- In my case I go to cd c:MEDIA and make sure the file is there I issue dir command to see list of files
- Now, before you can delete the file press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC
- Task manager window will open and now go to PROCESSES
- Scroll down and find process explorer.exe
- Right click on explorer.exe and select END PROCESS
- Now go back to command line and delete the file del file.mkv
- Check one more time by issuing
- dir and you should see the file is now gone
- Reboot your computer
That is it and I hope it helps you too.
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