Windows: You go to move a file and Windows throws up an “In Use” error. OpenFilesView shows you what application or system process is locking up the files you’re trying to move.

Sometimes the culprit is obvious; if you go to move your media folder and you’ve got your media player open watching South Park then shutting down the media player is the obvious solution. Other times the culprit is less obvious; sometimes Windows processes and less-than-obvious applications are accessing your files in ways that aren’t apparent. The screenshot below showcases the “In Use” error:

This is where OpenFilesView comes into play. Fire up the application to see a list of all active files on your system. The master list is a bit overwhelming (on our test system there were over 1200 open files) but you use the find command to drill down to specific file or folder names. Once you’ve found the locked file you can close the file handle, kill the process, or bring the process to the front (so you can examine the program, if possible, before terminating it). It’s much more efficient than rebooting in an attempt to shake the In-Use error.

OpenFilesView is freeware and works on Windows XP through Windows 7.

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