Program for forced deletion of files unlocker. IObit Unlocker - a program for forcibly deleting undeletable files and folders

Sometimes you may encounter the following situation: you want to delete a file, but Windows displays various messages about the impossibility of deleting this item. There may be several reasons for this, but only restarting the computer and then deleting it helps.

To quickly resolve such situations, it is worth having a program on your computer to delete undeletable files. Such software solutions are designed to force the removal of those elements that have been blocked by the system.


The article presents 6 such free applications. They will help you delete a file that was blocked by an incorrectly closed application or due to a virus.

IObit Unlocker is a free program for removing everything that can be removed using standard means. It allows you not only to delete locked files, but also to apply a number of other actions to them: copy, rename, move.

IObit Unlocker displays the location of the software that prevents you from deleting a particular item, so you can find out the cause of the deletion problem.

The bad thing is that the application cannot always correctly determine the status of the file. Sometimes blocked items appear as normal items.

The advantages of the application are its pleasant appearance and the presence of the Russian language.

LockHunter

Lock Hunter is another program for removing locked files. You will be able to delete, change the name and copy the problematic element.

The application correctly shows all blocked files and also shows the reason for the blocking.

The disadvantage is the lack of Russian translation of the application interface.

FileASSASSIN

An application with a menacing name, which translates as “file killer,” will allow you to easily remove undeletable items from your computer. You can also disable the process that caused the removal refusal.

The disadvantage of File Assassin is the lack of Russian translation of the program interface.

Free File Unlocker

Free File Unlocker is a free program for removing locked items. Like other similar solutions, it allows you to perform several additional actions on the file besides deleting it.

The application also shows the path to the program that does not allow you to delete the element. Free File Unlocker has a portable version that does not require installation.

The downside, again, is the lack of translation into Russian.

Unlocker

Unlocker fully lives up to its simple name. The entire interface is 3 buttons. Selecting an action on the file and clicking the “OK” button is all you need to do to deal with the undeletable element in Unlocker.

Due to its simplicity, the program suffers from a lack of features. But it is very simple and suitable for novice PC users. In addition, the application interface contains Russian.

Unlock IT

Unlock IT is one of the best software solutions to forcefully delete files and folders. This is explained by the fact that this product displays detailed information about the reason for the blocking: which application is blocking, where it is located, what is the load of this application on the system and what libraries this application uses. This helps a lot in the fight against file blocking viruses.

The program allows you to do many actions on locked items, and also works with folders.

Disadvantages include the lack of a Russian version and a slightly loaded interface.

With the help of the presented programs, you can easily delete undeletable files and folders from your computer. You no longer have to restart your computer to do this - just add the blocked item to the application and remove it.

Uninstallers (programs for removing programs) are an integral part of the process of optimizing the operating system, as they can free up significant resources for the operating system.

Unlike the standard uninstallation system, uninstallers often have advanced functionality. In addition to simple removal, they can search for remnants of deleted programs, perform forced removal (in cases where the program cannot be removed using standard means), as well as a number of other capabilities.

Below are the best removal programs that you can download to your computer and use instead of the standard removal tool.

Soft Organizer is a utility for removing (uninstalling) unnecessary programs and searching for their traces (residues) that remain after the normal removal process. To do this, you need to run program removal from Soft Organizer. In this case, the trace search process starts automatically after normal deletion.

08/15/2018, Anton Maksimov

Uninstallers have become the norm for Windows users. This is due to the fact that programs often leave a large number of files and folders on the disk that hang like dead weight. And the more applications the user installs and deletes on his PC, the more unnecessary traces remain on the system as dead weight.

06.26.2018, Anton Maksimov

The Uninstall Tool is perfect for conservative users who like the classic appearance of Windows XP-style programs. As for the functionality, it is very typical for programs of this type and includes a basic set of tools for searching for traces of uninstalled programs and a startup manager.

05/11/2018, Anton Maksimov

Total Uninstall is a utility for removing unnecessary programs with the function of tracking the installation of new programs, support for modern Windows applications (from the Microsoft Store), the function of cleaning the system from temporary and other unnecessary files, as well as a startup manager.

The program can display a list of all traces of the selected program using the “Details” button on the toolbar. These include traces on the disk, in the system registry, as well as services and devices. It can be very useful for analyzing applications, as it can show all the services associated with the selected program.

In our work, we focus on free and, even more often, open source software. In this post, we will talk about the free, but unfortunately not yet open source software Revo Uninstaller. This program will allow you to easily uninstall (remove) other software installed on your computer. The developer claims that Revo Uninstaller will be able to remove a program even if Windows cannot remove it through the Control Panel (Add/Remove Programs). Moreover, Revo Uninstaller is the most powerful and fastest alternative to the standard Windows uninstaller tool.

12/14/2017, Anton Maksimov

The standard program uninstallation tool does not always completely remove applications installed on the system. Some files and records remain there as dead weight. This does not cause serious damage to Windows until too much of this data accumulates. Residues from programs in the form of files can seriously reduce disk space, which can subsequently affect system performance. To prevent this from happening, there are various applications for completely removing programs.

One of these programs is called GeekUninstaller and it is designed to remove unnecessary programs and then search for and remove traces of these programs on the computer. The utility's interface is quite ascetic and simple. All you need to do is select the application and click the “Delete” button.

11/21/2017, Anton Maksimov

Wise Program Uninstaller is a utility for completely removing programs and traces of them that remain after normal uninstallation. The utility is very easy to use and does not require additional knowledge to operate. It works according to the classic scenario: first, a regular deletion is carried out, and then the remnants of the program are searched and deleted in the system.

Hello! I think all of you have come across very “arrogant” files or folders that did not want to be deleted. There was a connection between all these files and folders - they were open in some program. And if it says Microsoft Word, then this is understandable, just close the office editor and everything is fine.

What if Windows simply tells us that it cannot be deleted? How will we search? - That’s why there is a program for deleting undeletable files called Unlocker.

We are very lucky that this program is absolutely free, in the native Russian language and incredibly simple - understanding it will not be difficult. As always, I post the installation files on my website.

Have you downloaded it? - Let's install! As usual, I’ll tell you step by step what and where.

Program for deleting undeletable files - how to use?

Installing the Unlocker program is straightforward, like all installation programs. First of all, we select the language that will accompany us during the installation process.

We don’t want to install various toolbars and other heresies... I even wrote about this in detail - how all this stuff can masterfully crap on our computer, taking away valuable system resources.

In the article, I used the latest version at the time of writing (1.9.2), but during the time you came across it, the current version could have changed, so it is advisable to check for updates, you never know what interesting things have been added there and a bunch of glitches have been corrected. (I’m joking, I didn’t notice any glitches in the program, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.)

It is also very desirable to integrate it into the explorer, for the convenience of working with the program, the best thing is... right-click on the non-deletable file and find out what kind of infection is not letting it go to the trash bin 😉

So how do you use the program to remove undeletable files? Let's do an experiment. I have opened a document in Microsoft Word and am trying to delete it. Standard Windows Explorer warns us that the file is in use and cannot be deleted.

Right-click on the problematic file and select “Unlocker”, i.e. we launch our program in relation to this very file (or folder, depending on what is not being deleted there)

In the program itself we see that the file is used by the WINWORD process - and this is our Microsoft Word. Select it and click the “Delete process” button. The Word application will automatically close and the file can be easily deleted.

Here is our basket. We see that this malicious file was deleted without any problems. Now you can empty the Recycle Bin and forget about problems with undeletable files or folders forever.

Well, now you know that there is a program for deleting non-deletable files, and using it is as easy as shelling pears - anyone, even the most untrained user, can figure it out. Of course, experienced users, even without this program, know perfectly well what and what process prevents them from being deleted, but for beginners, this program is a real lifesaver. Sometimes even I forget that I have a hundred-year-old movie in my torrent and when I try to delete it, I get a message about the impossibility of performing this simplest operation.

That’s all I have, if you have any questions, ask them in the comments, I will answer everyone 😉 Have a good mood, I hope my note helped you.

In contact with

Surely every user at least once in his life has encountered a situation where some file or folder cannot be deleted, for example, after automatic uninstallation of a program or application. Such files remain in the system and hang like dead weight. Then they are often forgotten about, and they simply pollute the system. This is where a file deletion program will help.

Messages from the operating system about the impossibility of carrying out this procedure

There can be a lot of problems with deleting files. But the Windows operating system often gives the user completely different messages, which sometimes may have nothing to do with the source of the problem. For example, most often there are warnings that the file is occupied by some process, the user does not have administrative rights to perform this or that action, that the file is protected, that the hard drive is full, etc. In this case, forcefully deleting files can help.

Reasons and problems with deletion

Operating systems are not nearly as perfect as they might seem at first glance. Most often, the reasons for such situations may lie precisely in the fact that the process or service using the file continues to run in the background. As a rule, such situations arise when the software is uninstalled incorrectly. Sometimes an uninstallation application may require you to manually delete remaining files and folders, but in most cases the user does not even realize that there is a lot of unnecessary garbage left on his computer.

As practice shows, in most cases, forcibly deleting files using the operating system itself is not possible. However, some options are still available. Let's focus on the simplest solution.

Removing non-deletable files using Windows

If anyone doesn’t know, in Windows operating systems, for each file there is not only an extension by which the system or application identifies it, but also an attribute responsible for security. In addition, information is written here in the form of what type of access, opening or editing can be carried out by the user currently logged in to the system (this applies to multi-user systems). You can view this information by right-clicking on the file and then going to the Properties menu. The “General” tab displays basic information.

Notice that there is a “Read only” line at the bottom here. If there is a checkmark next to it, the file deletion program included in the operating system will not be able to delete it, since it identifies it as protected. In this case, sometimes it is enough to simply uncheck the corresponding field and then delete the desired object again. In some cases, this method turns out to be quite effective. But this only applies to standard file types with extensions like .txt or documents created using office applications.

But what to do when the object or folder you are looking for is a system one, and deleting files that are not deleted using standard methods becomes impossible due to the fact that they are accessed either by the operating system itself, or by some process, or by a background service? In this case, you will have to turn to special third-party utilities.

The best programs to force file deletion

Today there are quite a lot of software products that allow you to forcefully delete files. Typically, they all work using the same principles.

One of the best developments in this area is the small free Unlocker utility from French developers. It’s quite difficult to call it a program, since it does not have its own interface, but is built into the context menu of the standard Windows Explorer or any other file manager that is installed on the system.

To delete a file, you need to right-click on the file, select the Unlocker command from the drop-down menu, and then delete it. In some cases, you may need to terminate or delete the process that is currently using the file. But you need to be extremely careful with this.

No less interesting and simple is a program for deleting files called FileASSASSIN. In principle, it works exactly the same as Unlocker, integrating into Explorer. The desired action is called in the same way.

The difference between this utility is that it can unlock and delete not only individual files, but also entire folders, which is very convenient when the files to be deleted are in a protected directory.

One of the most successful utilities, according to many experts, is the iObit Unlocker program for removing undeletable files. The operating principle of this application is no different from the utilities described above.

However, with its help you can not only delete a file, but also take a roundabout route if no means help. For example, a file can be renamed directly in the application window and then deleted manually.

Finally, a very flexible application that performs forced file deletion is the small program LockHunter. The advantage of this utility is that it has special protection to prevent an inexperienced user from accidentally deleting system files, which can lead to complete inoperability of the operating system.

Removing non-deletable files here is done according to the operating system principle. First, the files are placed in the system Recycle Bin, and only then the user makes an independent decision about whether to delete them or not.

Key indicators of programs for deleting files and folders

If we compare the most popular utilities for forcibly deleting files, then the iObit program is in the lead in almost all indicators. It allows you to end and delete processes, delete or rename files and folders, unlocks files and folders, and also supports a Russian-language interface.

Nevertheless, other utilities in this area are no less functional, except that some of them cannot work with folders. In this case, you can first delete the necessary files from the directory, and then the directory itself. Longer, of course, but no less effective.

Conclusion

To summarize, it is worth saying that forcibly deleting files is not something very difficult. However, from a system security point of view, we can recommend the LockHunter application to novice or inexperienced users. It has almost the same functionality as iObit, but in the broadest sense it protects the system from accidental deletion of files and folders responsible for the correct operation of Windows.