Curious Findings: LockHunter
by EvilSeph on Nov.29, 2009 at 9:41 pm, under Computer Software, Curious Findings, Editorials | Thread ID: 6708
People strive to improve on technology not only to expand our horizons but, more importantly, to develop ways to afford ourselves more control over the various things in our lives. With this in mind, is it not ironic when that same drive to advance our technology results in less control than we had before?
How many times have you tried to delete a file only to be told it’s in use?
When I was using Windows XP, I honestly lost count how many times a day I would encounter this error. Now that I'm on Windows 7 it's not as a persistent annoyance in my daily computing as it was before, but it still happens and when it does I am left completely in the dark; helpless - removed of any control over the situation. All the error tells me is that something went wrong. But just what went wrong? And what caused it? By default, on your general Windows installation you'll never know.
Enter our saviour: LockHunter by Crystal Rich LTD. LockHunter is an application that, among other things, tells you what process is preventing you from performing actions on a file. Once you know what program is holding your file hostage, LockHunter lets you unlock, rename, delete the file or even kill the kidnapping program - perfect for dealing with malicious software like viruses, for example.
Once you've had a chance to try out LockHunter and decide you like what it offers, I encourage you to consider donating to its developer to thank them for their hard work.
Note: I previously had a similar application called Unlocker labeled as a Curious Finding however found that it did not work with any 64bit operating system or Windows 7.
System Requirements: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Both 32bit and 64bit.
License: LockHunter is completely free.
Screenshot:
Download: [LockHunter]
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November 30th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Useful find, espescially if you work on a USB drive frequently. Too often I get the cannot eject error, this should help narrow down the process accessing the drive.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:20 am
Very true.
Awesome little app EvilSeph ;) Can't wait for the next one.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:20 am
That's exactly what I thought when I first heard about this. There's always that single stupid file you need to go through the whole drive to find, and this fixes it.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:01 am
I used to have to use Unlocker so often on Windows XP, I started wondering why the hell it wasn't a built in feature in Windows. Then I decided to use Windows XP 64bit and I found out, the hard way, that it didn't work with 64bit operating systems.
Fast forward to a more recent time and I'm on Windows 7. Checked to see if Unlocker was updated to work with Windows 7 and 64bit operating systems and, unfortunately, it isn't so I had to find an alternative.