Many times you may come across these errors while deleting a file / folder, moving a folder to another location or trying to eject a USB device which may be in use by a certain process. The error occurs due to “exclusive locks” processes acquire on the device or file which need to be released before Windows can perform any other action on it.

Folder locks are not exclusive which simply means that you will get errors while deleting or moving folders only if a file within the folder is locked by a process. In programming these locks are widely seen in multi-threaded applications, where a multi-threaded object can only be accessed and modified by a single thread at a time.

But I closed all the applications using the file or do not see any other process using the device?

This is a common thing which happens with many of us, due to the fact that not all locks are created by visible applications, sometimes a file or a device may be locked in by a service that runs in the background, making it that much harder to get rid of the pesky “Can’t stop” or “Can’t delete” error messages.

How Can I Solve The Can’t Stop Device or Can’t Delete Files Error?

Though Windows does not have a inbuilt tool to tell you which processes are locking a certain file, folder or external device, there are several other tools which you can use to find it out. We will list few of them which are free to use and do their job exceptionally well.

Unlocker

Unlocker is a freeware software, that will allow you to find which processes are locking a file, folder or device and kill those processes to get rid of the error messages.

Right clicking on the file, folder or drive and clicking on Unlocker will show you the processes that are currently locking the file, folder or drive. Clicking on Unlock All option will release the locks and let you delete the file / folder or eject your drive without getting the error. Download Unlocker.

File and Folder Unlocker

File and Folder Unlocker is another freeware solution that will help you find processes that are locking your files / folders or devices. The software allows you to search for files that are giving you errors and unlock the files.

Though not as graceful as Unlocker in user interface, it does it’s job of unlocking files. Download File and Folder Unlocker.

Using these programs you can easily release the locks and get rid of the “Windows cannot delete this file”, “Cannot move folder, file is in use” and “Windows Can’t Stop Your Generic Volume Device Because It Is In Use” error messages.