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I cannot for the life of me figure this out. I've been trying to download the Soldier of Anarchy patch (this game has a metric ton of potential, but the pathfinding is atrocious in the unpatched version). Most of the links I found were bogus, and I'd only get a 13k or so file of indeterminate type (shows the generic Windows 3.11 white box as an icon on the desktop).
The problem is, these files refuse to be deleted. I have no idea why - they just give an error message ('file is being used by another program' although they definitely aren't). Rebooting doesn't seem to help, either.
Help? :(
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Either Crtl-Alt-Delete out of all programs that you can (explorer and systray for Win95-based systems, and ~10 processes for WinXp) and then try again. If that doesn't work, try booting into safe mode and trying there. If those don't work, then try someone else's advice ;)
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In addition to what Dozer said, you could try looking at what is started up when you restart your computer.[/someone elses advice]
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There can be a few reasons why you can't delete the files within Windows, some of them rather unpleasant. Anyhow...
If you are running Windows ME or lower (98/95), boot to command prompt only (in ME booting from the installation CD will give taht option, otherwise Shift-F5). Then you can move down to the files and delete them, if you can remember how to use the CLI. :)
XP can be a bigger problem, depending on what the actual cause of being unable to delete the files is. Booting in Safe mode with nothing extra loading is a good first move.
-rcv-
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I've had programs that won't be deleted, because they are always "in use". I can usually remedy this by moving the files into a new folder and renaming them. The program can't find the files, so it won't use them and I can delete them. Not a very neat option, but it's worked for me in the past.
Kartoffelsalat
USEast SCL
*kevin_osu
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If none of the above suggestions work, try going into dos and deleting it that way.
Since no windows program operates in dos there will be no problem in deleting it. Just make a note to exactly where that/those files are and what their dos name is. (Right-click properties to find out)
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If you know a bit of computer manteniance, you can remove the hard drive from your computer and put it on another computer (visit a friend), then delete the files from the computer in where are both hard drives. Since the files of your hard drive aren't used in the computer, they can be deleted.
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Wow, thanks for all the suggestions.
However, I've managed to delete those nasty files. My computer locked up, one of those hard-lucks that you can't reboot out of, so I had to actually cut the power. Once I rebooted, I could delete 'em. I have no idea what changed, but I'm not complaining. :lol:
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01-26-2004, 07:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-26-2004, 07:52 PM by Rhydderch Hael.)
Wait a minute here. Did you try rebooting the compy before asking for this advice?
Political Correctness is the idea that you can foster tolerance in a diverse world through the intolerance of anything that strays from a clinical standard.
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Yes.
Rebooting normally (Start -> Shutdown -> Reboot) didn't help. Turning off the power supply and then restarting the computer did.
Don't ask me how that could be different, I'm stumped.
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Well, it is possible with a soft-boot that some of the memory didn't clear out completely. When Windows rebooted the locked-files permissions was already in memory, telling Windows not to allow access to the files.
A hard boot would force that information out of memory - it died without the power.
Just conjecture, but possible. Especially if a reboot only clears the pointers to memory instead of the memory itself.
Trade yourself in for the perfect one. No one needs to know that you feel you've been ruined!
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Nobody's mentioned Safe Mode?
Reboot the computer and keep mashing F8 until you see a boot menu. Then choose Safe Mode. Safe Mode loads Windows with the bare minimum of drivers and programs - it should give you the ability to nuke what ails ya.
-Bolty
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Hello Bolty,
Safe Mode alone might not work on files "in use".
I've experienced a similar problem, and had to boot to Safe Mode, DOS Prompt Only.
Then, I had to navigate via DOS to the affected files and delete them.
I was able to delete without a problem.
My 2 Pennies.
-Ace
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