Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Handle

Handle allows you to determine which process has a file or folder open. Handle is useful any time you need to update or delete a file or folder, but access is denied because the object is in use.

To run Handle, save the file to a folder that is allowed to run executable files, such as C:\Program Files\. Specifically, you cannot save it to a Temporary Files folder. Then, open an administrative command prompt and select the folder containing the Handle executable.

To view all open handles, run Handle without any parameters. To view which process has a particular file or folder open, run Handle with a portion of the file's name. For example, if the sample music file Amanda.wma is locked, you can identify which process has it open by running the following command.

Handle Amanda

The following output demonstrates that Windows Media Player (Wmplayer.exe) has the file locked.

Handle v3.3
Copyright (C) 1997-2007 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

wmplayer.exe pid: 3236 2C0: C:\Users\Public\Music\Sample Music\Amanda.wma

Because the output lists the process name and Process Identifier (PID), you can use Task Manager to kill the process, allowing you to access the locked file. You can download Handle from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx.