Unlocker: remove your USB flash drive when you want to

Have you ever tried to delete a file or folder but Windows didn't let you? It tells you that the file or folder is being used by another program.

Have you ever tried to eject a USB flash drive but Windows didn't let you? You usually receive an error like this:

Often, it is not clear which program is accessing your files. This can be time consuming and frustrating - often requiring you to perform a restart just to get your hands on your own USB flash drive! Well, I'm happy to say that those days are over :)

Unlocker is a free, tiny 191KB, program that allows you to "unlock" files, folders, or external drives that are being used by (often hidden) processes on your computer. Kiss those unnecessary restarts good bye.

You simply right click on the file or folder and select Unlocker from the menu. This will bring up the Unlocker program window which displays all of the programs that are accessing that file or folder. Click Unlock All and you're done.

Mac OSX users: I was unable to find an OSX equivalent to the excellent (and free and tiny) Unlocker :( However, I have found this article which describes how to deal with locked files in OSX.

Blogged with Flock