Sometimes I try to delete a file with del /f filenameand it says "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.". Out of curiosity, what exactly is preventing this from happening? Is it the way that the hardware is set up, or is it more on the software side? And if the only thing preventing this from happening is the software, is there a way to work around it (force windows to delete part of the memory that is being accessed, and if it causes an error in whatever process is using it, just let it crash and exit)? Tried to look online and couldn't find anything.
Thanks
If a software program is loading or reading the file you want to delete, then this error appears.
And the only thing you can do, is closing the program and then try to delete the file again..
Related
the problem is simple, I have a folder with working files, my program stores files/folders within this folder while processing. However, the problem is that I often get an error like "File 'Temp123.temp' cannot be accessed, it is being used by another program." I want to know which program does this.
If I try to use the resource monitor I am not fast enough, as the files are created, used and deleted in a matter of a few seconds and their name is random.
I suspected that the antivirus might be to blame, but even when I deactivate this, the error persists.
Is there a possibility to monitor the whole work-folder and its subfolders to see what programs are using my files?
Thank you so much in advance!
This is a standard function of Microsoft's SysInternals "Process Monitor" aka ProcMon tool
My program creates a file, writes to it, closes it, renames it to something else. For one customer, the rename often fails with a sharing violation and I have been unable to recreate this issue.
The program is asynchronous and multithreaded, where the create and write are guaranteed to have been completed at the time of close and rename, but the close and rename may happen in any order due to being in different threads.
The customer ensures me that there are no av or backup programs installed and we have tried with Windows Search disabled.
When the close happens before or after the rename everything works (the file is opened with shared read+write+delete flags). However, when they are happening very close in time it sometimes fails. When running with ProcessMonitor, the error does not occur.
I know that the rename is made up out of several file operations (open, set information, close at least), so I assume that it is possible for the file close to be interleaved with the file rename, which seems be at the heart of the problem.
I am going to be able to work around the issue by ensuring that the file is closed after the rename. But I don't understand exactly what causes the sharing violation and I would like to know more why this is an issue. Can anyone give me more information on what happens?
I've asked the very same question here :
Why does my program say "folder does not exist" when run on Windows 2008?
but none of the answers were satisfying and my problem still exists , so I decide to ask it in another way with more detail cause this problem really irritate me and we need to solve this , otherwise we have to write the similar application in another language which means waste of our time.
program written in delphi 7(32 bit)
environment running this program is : windows 2008 r2 64-bit
the task program try to do : creating 3 folders then copy an sound file and compress it using lame commmand line (lame.exe) and save changes into database
error I get : "THE 'folder' does not exist . the file might have been moved or deleted , Do you want to create it?" and it cause the program become halted
things I have done :
1- try to run the program as an administrator
2- check eventlog but no clue
3- triple check the required folder and all of them was correct
4- read this KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927387
BUT still I am seeing this bloody error.
I have uploaded the picture of the error here as you see it clearly :
http://i28.tinypic.com/9to6qr.jpg
The folder name is C:\Upload_ABC\\2010\07\27\:
please notice I haven't written that unwanted dialog-box inside my program I believe windows 2008 attach it or bring it on my application.
please please please give me some idea or let me know what should I do ?
best regards.
C:\Upload_ABC\\2010\07\27\
You have two backslashes in your path. Use debugger to see why.
Have you checked the access rights for that folder structure with regard to the account the Delphi program is running from? Windows Server systems tend to be more restrictive in what a user is allowed to do than Windows on workstations are.
In addition I suggest to strip down a copy of the program to the relevant functionality to show the error. With this you get at least a chance that anyone around may test it on another system.
Furthermore you can try to compile it with D2010 and see wether the error persists. If it does, you might have a chance to find the problem running the D2010 debugger. If you don't have D2010 at hand, you might install the trial just for this purpose.
What is between the two consecutive backslashes in your path? Is there really nothing between them or have some characters been removed because they are Unicode and D7 doesn't support Unicode?
As there is nothing in between the two consecutive backslashes...
It does sound like Windows is getting its grubby little fingers in between your program and your access of the files. Either the folders have not been created, or you are being denied access once they have. And as the changes you are trying to store in your database involve compressed files, virtualization seems to be the culprit as explained by the link you yourself provided.
A couple of avenues to try:
Remove any compatibility settings on your exe (right click|properties|Compatibility tab) that could trigger Windows to butt in. Also don't forget this can be triggered by things like "setup" or "update" as part of the executable name.
"Save your application's data in a folder under your user profile."
Such as c:\users\\documents or some such (better not hardcode it in actual production code, but ok for debugging). That after all is exactly the advice the linked msdn article is giving for scenario 2 "you cannot find the files or folders you just created"
If you can't debug on the machine where it is running, go back to old school debugging: add trace messages to your code to show where in the code you are (and have been) and show them in a memo on a separate form or some such.
Make sure you don't "eat" any exceptions that could give you extra information about what is going on.
I want that an exe file can't be copied or cut from the Windows file system to paste somewhere.
The exe is made in C#. which must have to be in only one PC.
I have worked with FileSystemWatcher, NSIS, Clipboard. but for all I need to detect whether that file is being copied.
I also have seen 'Prevent'(http www free-download-blog.com disable-cut-paste-copy-delete-rename-functions-using-prevent ), but I need to prevent only that particular exe from being copied or cut.
Any pointer or idea will help.
As others have suggested you won't be able to disable the copy/cut behaviour so easily.
An alternative would be to disable the execution of the copied versions. In your executable you could check many things like :
The path of the present executable is explicitly your_path
The name of the machine and user is the one you authorise
You could even prevent the file of being executed more than once using Windows register entries (if already 1 don't launch). It won't be perfect since any experimented user could tweak that out, assuming they are seeking for that. But depending on your users profile it might be sufficient.
If you need the exe to be executable, you need to permit loading it into memory.
As soon as you do, anyone can read it to memory using ReadFile and then write to an arbitrary location using WriteFile. No shell-detectable copying involved.
A good reading: Raymond's post and its comments on preventing copying.
Well, this is a hard problem. Even if you get explorer.exe to disable cut&paste, what prevents a user from using the command window? Or writing their own exe to do it? Booting up in linux and reading it?
Still, you have a few options (there will be more, most likely) which you could try:
Use the right permissions: Set the
permissions such that the users who
you don't want to cut&paste cannot
read the file.
Write a device driver which can hook
onto the filesystem calls and do that
for you.
Encrypt the file.
And some hacky options like:
Use the APPINIT_DLLS regkey to put your own dll to be loaded into each process ( I am not sure if this will work with console process though). Then on your dll load, do IAT hooking to replace the kernel32.dll file calls.
Replace kernel32.dll with your own version. Might have to do some messing around with the PE format etc.
There are no guarantees though. If for instance, you expect them to be able to execute it, but not copy it, you are probably stuck.
Any local admin will be able to undo anything you do to prevent copying. I can pretty much guarantee the program on that page you mention relies on a service or background process to prevent copy-and-paste, and therefore is easily circumventable. If your users are in a closed environment where none of them are admins and they have very limited rights to their PCs, then you have a chance.
if you could completly block explorer from copying or moving files, then all u need is a 3rd party software for copying files (but make sure it can filter file extensions) for example Copy Handler
Set up an ENVIRONMENT variable in your machine
In your code add a check
if (ENVIRONMENT Variable=='Same as defined')
//Execute code
else
//Suspend execution
I have been using CopyFileEx since the beginning of times and it has been working great. If the file is not locked, it will copy the file. If the file is locked, it will not and GetLastError will report the error. All fine and dandy.
However, there are some files that are partially locked, PST outlook files being the best example. In that case, CopyFileEx begins to copy, and when it hits the part of the file that is locked, it will hang and never return back (on Windows 7, maybe on other systems too).
Is there any way to avoid this problem?
There is a way to avoid it, but there is no easy solution.
Please see my answer here.
You could do the copying yourself, starting with a call to LockFileEx. It has a flag to fail immediately if it can't lock what you've asked it to.