can't delete movie file

  • Thread starter Thread starter Spooky
  • Start date Start date
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Spooky

I downloaded an .avi movie file from the internet. I have
been able to burn it to disk, and open it, only it is not
HP, it's porn. When I try to delete it, it tells me the
file is in use, even though it is not. I even tried
restarting my comp several times and deleting it while
everything is shut down. I was able to move it only once,
before I knew what it was, though I had probs doing that,
and after a few days I was able to rename it so my kid
didn;t click on "Harry Potter" but I've been unable to
delete it or do anything else with it since.
 
Have you tried booting into Safe Mode and deleting it from there?

Have you run a FULL antivirus scan with updated Signatures? Are you really
downloading files from the lnternet not knowing their source?
 
Spooky said:
I downloaded an .avi movie file from the internet. I have
been able to burn it to disk, and open it, only it is not
HP, it's porn. When I try to delete it, it tells me the
file is in use, even though it is not. I even tried
restarting my comp several times and deleting it while
everything is shut down. I was able to move it only once,
before I knew what it was, though I had probs doing that,
and after a few days I was able to rename it so my kid
didn;t click on "Harry Potter" but I've been unable to
delete it or do anything else with it since.
Click to expand...

Now that you've wisely burned an archive copy to a CD-R, you can use this
freeware utility to delete the stubborn original file on system reboot:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html

Regards,
Ian.
 
Spooky said:
I downloaded an .avi movie file from the internet. I have
been able to burn it to disk, and open it, only it is not
HP, it's porn. When I try to delete it, it tells me the
file is in use, even though it is not. I even tried
restarting my comp several times and deleting it while
everything is shut down. I was able to move it only once,
before I knew what it was, though I had probs doing that,
and after a few days I was able to rename it so my kid
didn;t click on "Harry Potter" but I've been unable to
delete it or do anything else with it since.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the common(ish) problem that Windows Explorer has with some
video type files.
Windows Explorer will scan video files for various properties which it may
then display for you.
A video file that is corrupt (in structure not content!) will cause Windows
Explorer to hang trying to reads it's properties.

The solution is to disable Windows Explorer's AVI handler within the
Registry.

Open RegEdit and browse to this key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler

You should find it's value to be a long string of various characters.
If you edit the PropertyHandler value - set it blank - then it's effectively
disabled.
You may need to reboot to effect the change and then you'll find that video
files don't hang Explorer and - not being 'in use' - can be deleted etc.
The various 'features(?)' that Windows Explorer had with regard to the
videos - displaying previews and showing duration, resolution etc will be
gone!

Using RegEdit, what i've done is to export the registry key before clearing
it's value - saved it as AVIhandlerON.reg, and then edited this REG file
removing the AVI handler value and saving it as AVIhandlerOFF.reg.

Gives me a single click option to turn this rather useless Windows feature
on or off.

Martin.
 
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