this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 187 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

"Hey Linux, can you just delete this file please?"

"Sure thing bud, a program is using it, it's ok, I will just unlink the inode anyway, the program can still access it until it closes the file"

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 70 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

This is honestly one of my favorite features of the linux filesystem. As a dev it makes things like replacing and hot-reloading plugins way easier.

It turns out you can kind of get the same functionality on Windows if you rename the open file and place the new one with the original name, but it's a bit of a hack.

[–] oascany@lemmy.world 46 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Windows won't let you rename a file that's being used either.

[–] mcv@lemmy.zip 19 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah, super annoying. In Linux you can rename or move it and the app using it doesn't care.

Although having the option of listing the app using a file so I can kill the app would also be really nice to have. I'm sure Linux has something for that too, but I don't know what it is.

[–] sefra1@lemmy.zip 18 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I’m sure Linux has something for that too, but I don’t know what it is

fuser

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[–] youngalfred@lemmy.zip 163 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

In case anyone is interested, there's a powertoy called file locksmith that will show what's using it and let you kill it: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/file-locksmith

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 106 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

"Time to see who's stopping me from deleting this file... svchost??? Goddamn it!"

[–] baines@lemmy.cafe 51 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] youngalfred@lemmy.zip 59 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Instructions unclear, I shot my gaming rig with a 6 bore shotgun…. And then set it on fire.

[–] notabot@piefed.social 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Instructions may have been unclear, but you got the gist of it.

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Probably the indexing service, it's always the indexing service.

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[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 3 weeks ago

Powertoys seems to be the only thing keeping windows somewhat usable, I have no idea why they don't include it in the build.

[–] Mikina@programming.dev 16 points 3 weeks ago

I discovered powertoys only recently, and it's a pretty cool set of tools. From color picker, tiling window manager to regex file renames or copy/paste tools, it has a lot of QoL features.

If you have to be on windows, i.e due ro work, I recommend not sleeping on it.

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[–] judgyweevil@feddit.it 69 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (8 children)

Me: I've close the program, now please delete the file

Windows: ok, give me half an hour, it's not easy to delete 500 MB

... And the file is back open somehow. Only now the program throws an error when Windows launches, yet still leeches resources.

[–] killeronthecorner@lemmy.world 26 points 3 weeks ago

Here's an incredibly animated chart of how poorly I'm doing. Note that I seem to throttle the operation every 5 seconds or so.

Explanation? No, no. Haha. No. We don't do anything like that.

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[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 66 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

TBF the task manager and those windows explorer dialogues were programed in like 1996 and it's probably one of the best functioning feature in Windows so changing it too much carries high risks.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 55 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (6 children)

changing it too much carries high risks

This is such a Windows way of thinking. Why does every other OS constantly change and evolve but Windows is like β€œcan’t touch this code from a quarter century ago?”

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 28 points 3 weeks ago

Becuase it's still integral to countless businesses operations.

[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 23 points 3 weeks ago

I don't see the problem with it. Microsoft historically does a great job of making everything worse with updates.

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[–] cm0002@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Lol yea, but it would have been such a small tweak with big big QoL improvements LMAO

[–] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You can use process explorer, it even has option to act as a replacement for task manager.

Edit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

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[–] kuneho@lemmy.world 58 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

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 on the CPU tab, using the "Associated handles" list, you can search for the file name and see the process in question (and kill it).

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

[–] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 48 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

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.

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 21 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

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

[–] AndyMFK@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I would argue windows 11 is pretty much unusable regardless

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[–] kuneho@lemmy.world 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

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".

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[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 41 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

What gets me is when I'm not allowed to remove an external drive. Deleting a file can be delayed until later but here I am with a physical object that I need to detach from my computer and first I need to play hide and seek with the OS.

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 28 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

If this happens often, you can disable write caching for that drive. It'll feel slightly slower (since it's actually operating at the speed of the hardware instead of caching operations in RAM and gradually writing them to disk in the background), but you'll be able to remove the drive almost instantly.

[–] DrMartinu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 weeks ago

I used to find it had something to do with the explorer thumbnailer finishing up but sort of not letting go. It would happen if I had pictures or videos on the USB drive, and if I got the error I could go to another folder like my documents, drag a picture into another folder, go look at the pretty new thumbnail, then I could remove the USB drive because the thumbnailer was 'parked' back on the C drive. Sounds like I'm making it up but I swear it worked.

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[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

And that removable object’s filesystem is probably the most shit, unjournalled filesystem in the world so you’re actually fucked if it becomes corrupted by removing it early.

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[–] dan@upvote.au 33 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Some Windows apps do handle it properly. For example, if you have an archive open in 7-zip and try to delete it, Windows Explorer should correctly tell you that it's open in 7-Zip. I'm not sure why it doesn't work that way for all apps.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 11 points 3 weeks ago

Windows doesn't even tell you if Explorer itself has a folder open... how the hell does 7-Zip do it?

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 32 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

opening the task manager with a shotgun cocking sound

Shame...

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

β€œWindows.exe has stopped working”

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[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Meanwhile on Linux: /boot successfully deleted

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I once deleted /dev/null Do not recommend. You’d be surprised how much of the system needs it.

[–] Dremor@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I once deleted /dev/urandom. I didn't want uncertainty in my life.

Well, I was on for a surprise.

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[–] Johanno@feddit.org 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Actually on windows 7 I found out how to get which process is locking one file.

You open the resources manager (task manager has a link to it)

Inside you can see how much each process uses on cpu, network and stuff.

And there is a tab where all used files for each process is listed. You can search for specific files.

[–] Landless2029@lemmy.world 34 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Yeah there's a Microsoft sysinternals utility where you can drag a file into to fetch that info for you.

Makes zero sense there isn't a >Details in the error notification that tells you the damned process in Windows.

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[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 20 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

I've never fused Linux before, is it difficult?

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

fuser is an easy command just point it at the file and it tells you the process ids that using that file.

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[–] pedz@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 weeks ago

It's one of the things that made me prefer using Linux a long long time ago. It's nice to be able to rename, move, and delete files while they are used.

[–] Njos2SQEZtPVRhH@piefed.social 14 points 3 weeks ago

Well duh, Microsoft respects privacy

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Same thing whenever I try to unplug a USB, Win10, on my desktop. There have been times where I plugged in one, opened a file, closed it within seconds, did the safely remove thing, and then I get the whole quick song and dance about some program still using it because of how sluggish it is to actually end what's using it in the background.

Also, my phone's keyboard software was bugging out and replaced "song" with "incest" for no discernable and wanted to replace the next word "and" with "rape incest". Not related, but fuck Gboard and that weird glitch where it'll replace words with random shit for no reason.

[–] MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Doesn't gboard try to promote words you've used more prior more often than ones you've used less...?

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