by Alan German

What do you do when you can’t safely remove an external USB drive because Windows indicates that some process has it locked? The problem usually occurs when there are no applications running so it is less than obvious which program is the culprit. Wouldn’t it be nice is someone had produced a utility that would (a) tell you about the problem, and (b) fix it for you? Enter Lockhunter – a free software tool designed specifically to resolve issues with locked files and folders.

When Lockhunter is installed, it integrates into the context menu for File Explorer. You can then load File Explorer and simply right-click on the name of the file that is locked. Select “What is locking this file?” Lockhunter will show the errant process and give you the option to unlock the file, delete it, or choose from a number of other options. Click on the “Unlock It!” icon. Problem solved!

Originally published: March, 2017

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