Mastodawn

cm0002 Oct 3, 2025

Deleting Files

https://sh.itjust.works/post/47208932

back in the XP days, I used a software called “Unlocker” just for this problem. It probably still exists, I don’t know, because since Windows 7, the easiest way to find out what process locks a file is to open Resource Monitor (Start search: resmon) and the bottom list on the CPU tab you can search the file name and you will find the process.

So yeah, Resource Monitor is a useful tool on Windows.

rockerface🇺🇦Oct 3

There’s a collection of free little utilities called Microsoft PowerToys, including the file unlocker thing. Why would they not include these into base kit Windows is beyond me.

GitHub - microsoft/PowerToys: Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that help you customize Windows and streamline everyday tasks

Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that help you customize Windows and streamline everyday tasks - microsoft/PowerToys

GitHub

Why would they not include these into base kit Windows is beyond me. Some of them felt a bit buggy when I last time used Windows, maybe they aren’t fully ready to ship (like Samsung’s Good Lock apps?). And most features didn’t do quite what I imagined it to do, but that’s probably a “me problem”.

rockerface🇺🇦Oct 3

That’s a fair point, but, let’s be honest, the built in Windows features often have the same issues

DeathsEmbrace Oct 3

Not recently copilot and AI implementation has made the OS beyond shitty recently and a lot of broken shit. That’s why I need to move to Linux they’re basically sinking their ship with broken AI code.

The telemetry is overbearing too lately.

DeathsEmbrace Oct 3

Bill Gates secret hotline.

probably.

not including PowerToys inside basic package is a fucking choice. Win11 is literally unusable without it in many aspects.

I would argue windows 11 is pretty much unusable regardless

LTSC is probably usable but if the base is so broken - i wonder if LTSC is still as good as Win10 LTSC.

untorquer Oct 3

It works you just have to launch outlook 3 times for it to take.

I suspect it’s in line with big tech policies to coddle end users instead of educating or trusting them. I assert (particularly since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007) that learned helplessness is built into the game plan.

MonkeMischief Oct 3

100%! Like with major setups and upgrades now just being throbbing circles and a pulsing blue light with the creepy “We’re doing stuff on your behalf behind this screen.” messaging.

I say computers (and the Internet) are for anybody, but not everybody. Learning to use a tool will always be a requirement of useful tools.

There used to be a time when most people using a computer implicitly understood how files and folders worked, for instance. But now even such a simple abstraction is considered advanced esoteric lost arcana.

I’m deeply saddened by how the tech industry has deliberately pushed understanding backwards so hard in order to foster more obedient consumers.

It’s actually wild to see how many people who were at the very least, young adults during the computer boom of the late 80’s/early 90’s, can’t handle anything without a touch screen and don’t comprehend email.

Ignorance is sold as the future.

TempermentalAnomaly Oct 3

Sysinternals is also a great tool. Not as vital for the average user though.

Sysinternals Suite: Manage, troubleshoot, diagnose Windows systems and apps

Manage, troubleshoot, diagnose Windows systems, apps with Windows Sysinternals Suite. You can use these tools to find problems, and resolve.

The Windows Club

Because they want to include things with ads now.

I feel like it’s a testing ground for new features for them, but not sure why some aren’t yet integrated. Best guess: the PowerToys team has less red tape and checks to go through than the Windows team to allow for faster iteration, but that means that integrating the features wouldn’t be just the click of a button since they’d have to adapt it to fit the Windows style. But this is just a wild guess.

some_kind_of_guy Oct 3

I think you’re right on the money. There seems to be a component of enticing power users to stick with Windows as well. The app is still “in beta” despite the first release being in 1996 (!). I had to look that up, because I’d only heard about it in the early windows 10 days.

The first version of PowerToys was released for Windows 95 on 17 November, 1996 as a download on Microsoft’s FTP server at the time.

Well wadaya knows?

I like that it wasn’t a proper installed thing, just a bunch of executables in a zip file.

The bugs and horribly slow hardware that caused the locks in NT/XP have slowly disappeared, by win 10, I rarely had any files I couldn’t delete if I, worst case, made explorer reload. It used to happent o be every other day in the late 90s

The big file lock issue for me is when it is the file browser locking the file in order to give you a summary of it in the side bar, so you can’t edit it, you can’t rename it