How to delete an undeleteable files

At times, you must have come across such situations where a file doesn’t get deleted, no matter what you do. So, the following instructions will help you get out of such situations.

Here in this tutorial, I’ll use test.avi, which doesn’t get deleted. Now open Command Prompt and leave it open there. Close all the other programs (if any opened). Open Task Manager and end the process Explorer.exe. DON’T close the Task Manager, leave it open and now go back to Command Prompt. Change the directory to where test.avi is saved (I hope you know Command Prompt, anyway, use the CD command).

After changing the directory, type DEL <filename>, where <filename> will be test.avi (in this case). So the command becomes DEL test.avi. After typing just press Enter and the file will be deleted. :) Simple, isn’t it?

Oh, yeah I forgot, I made you quite the GUI shell. To restart it, go back to Task Manager and go to File > New task and enter Explorer.exe and press Enter.

I hope that solves this problem and you have enjoyed reading this.

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Author: Haris Nadeem
He is the founder of Sizzled Core and a Pakistani blogger who loves gadgets and exploring out the web!

14 Comments

shaun

what is an example of an undeleteable file? I’ve never had any problems delteting anything.

Aug 5th, 2007
dEEPAK

You could use a simple utility called Unlocker..It’s really simple to use.. Right click on the file and select unlocker,, Now you can do whatever you want with that file.. I had written a post on it a while ago..

Aug 5th, 2007
Nirmal

Simple trick. I think there are few softwares which will do the job for you.

Aug 7th, 2007
Windows Tips, Tricks And Hacks

Great command line tip! I didn’t realize that it was that simple (although, I haven’t had this issue for a long time…)

Aug 21st, 2007
Haris

This issue is not a common one, but it’s always best to know the way out of such weird problems before they come to us.

Aug 21st, 2007
Windows Tips, Tricks And Hacks

True, I guess that I meant that it used to happen a lot more often (for me), but I guess there must have been an Update to fix the problem…

Aug 21st, 2007
dan

This command didn’t work for me :sad: …i have a unique issue where i can’t delete a file. I get the following message… “The filename or extension is too long.” Any help??

Aug 27th, 2007
Lesli

How do I delete files in adobe reader 7.0

Jul 12th, 2008
Lesli

I down loaded a document to my computer that went in to my adobe reader. I no longer need it how do I delete it?

Jul 12th, 2008
Lesli

I haave windows 2003

Jul 12th, 2008
Lesli

Can you tell how to delete documents in adobe reader 7.0 There is no delete option. Is there a way to delete documents in adobe reader

Jul 12th, 2008