How to Delete an "Undeleteable" File

Information
This tutorial shows you how to delete undeletable files. There are times when explorer.exe somehow locks files into place and won't allow them to be deleted. In order to delete them you must close explorer.exe and use a command prompt to delete the file.



Tip
Be very careful when deleting files through command prompt, it's possible you could accidently delete the wrong file.



1. Open an elevated Command Prompt
Start > Search "cmd" > Right Click cmd.exe > Run as Administrator

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2. Open Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Dlt) and end process "explorer.exe"
3. Switch Back to Command Prompt

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4. Change to the directory of your file and delete it.
First run this line: cd "PATH OF YOUR FILE" i.e. cd "%USERPROFILE%"\Downloads"
Now run this line: del filename.extension i.e. del filename.mkv

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5. Switch back to Task Manager

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6. File Menu > New Task (Run) > explorer.exe

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