Check which process is using a file

This guide will show you several methods on how to find out which process is currently using a specific file in Windows 11, and how to unlock a file that is locked by a process. In Windows 11, you can quickly check which process is using a file without installing any third party software. Resource Monitor is a Windows built-in tool that allows you to monitor resource consumption such as CPU, memory, disk and network usage of active processes in Windows There is also a section called Associated Handles which you can search for the process that is using and locking a file by entering the name of the locked file.

Tutorials Windows. The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program. To get the process holding those folder or file, we can use these two utilities: Resource Monitor Process Explorer.

For Windows 7 and above, you can use the built-in Resource Monitor. Open Resource Monitor, which can be found By searching for resmon. Open Process Explorer running as "administrator" by running procexp. Take our short survey. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. How do I find out which process is locking a file using. Ask Question.

Asked 12 years, 11 months ago. Active 2 years, 2 months ago. Viewed k times. Update Links to similar questions How does one figure out what process locked a file using c?

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Diagnostics; using System; using System. Unable to determine file locker. Length, resources, 0, null, 0, null ; if res! Add Process. GetProcessById processInfo[i]. Failed to get size of result. IIS This call accesses the registry. Granting other-than-minimal permissions to the IIS user is a security risk.

Eric J. Easy peasy! In the "Handle or DLL substring:" text box, type the path to the file e. All processes which have an open handle to that file should be listed. WhoLockMe - Explorer extension which adds a right-click menu option.