How to delete a file in Windows
If the computer reports that the file is open in another program
Most often, the inability to delete a file in Windows is due to the fact that it is busy with some kind of system process. The message “Action can not be executed, since this file is opened in”The name of the program“.
In this case, you need to close the program that uses the file, and then try to delete it. If you see its window, then just close it. If the program is running in the background and you do not know how to close it, start Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), find the program by name in the list, right-click on it and select “Delete task”.
If you can not find the desired program in the “Task Manager”, try a third-party utility that removes the lock from the files. A free LockHunter application is suitable. After installing it, right-click on the file and select What is locking this file ?. When the LockHunter window appears, click the Unlock It! Button in it.
After that, try to delete the file again. In case of failure, restart the computer and try again. For complete removal from your computer, do not forget to empty the trash.
If the computer reports that you are denied access
Sometimes the file can not be deleted because your account does not have rights to this action. In such cases, Windows reports that access is denied. To solve this problem, you need to change the owner of the file. In the process, you may need a login and password from the PC administrator account.
To change permissions, right-click on the file and go to “Properties” → “Security” → “Advanced”. Near the “Owner” item, click “Edit”, then “Advanced” and “Search”. Select the current account from the list and click OK.
After that, you will most likely be able to delete the file in the usual way. If it does not work, try restarting the computer and try again.
How to delete a file in macOS
If the Mac reports that the file is being used
To begin, manually close the applications in which you used this file, and try again to erase it. They can interfere with the removal, as it does in Windows. If it fails, restart the computer and try again.
If it does not work, go into safe mode. To do this, restart the Mac while holding down the Shift key. Try moving the file to the Recycle Bin and cleaning it, and then restart the computer as usual.
If the file can not be deleted for other reasons
The file may not be deleted due to errors on the disk. Therefore, run the “Disk Utility” in the Finder → “Programs” → “Utilities” section and check the disk on which the file is located in the “First Aid” service.
After checking, restart the Mac and try to delete the file.
Read also:
- Removing and recovering deleted files from USB storage or an external SSD drive →
- 7 best utilities for recovering deleted data →
- How to restore data on your Android device →
