Delete file tied to explorer.exe

kookooshortman55

kookooshortman55

New Member
I was recently downloading a patch for a game and it got cancelled. I now have a file sitting on my desktop, 0 byes, and I can't delete it. I used the unlocker to try and unlock it from explorer but the process keeps reloading. When I kill explorer, the file disappears and I can't delete it. When I try to delete through the command prompt with explorer gone, it can't find the file. I even tried restarting the computer, and it keeps showing up on my desktop. Any suggestions?
 
Strange...

The only thing that I can think of is to move the file to my docs or somthing and put it in a folder and then hide the folder so you can forget about it. Or get REALLY drastic and re-install windows but thats sorta overkill...
 
It's a patch for Call of Duty 4

I don't remember exactly what canceled the download, but it's called CoD4MW-1.6-1.7-PatchSetup.exe File properties says it's 0 bytes. I've seen that happen before, but they're usually easy to delete. I could try safe mode, but I figured it wouldn't help because explorer would still be running. Unless I'm mistaken?
 
you could kill explorer and delete it from the task manager's "run" dialog.

In task manager, File - New Task - Browse
find file. delete.
If it still won't go, Safe Mode is about the only thing I could think of.
 
I tried both and it's still not going away. I also installed KillBox, and that didn't work either. I've been reading around a lot, and I'm starting to think it could be a virus. Just lately, my computer has been rebooting with a default display resolution of 1400*1050, instead of 1680*1050. I see no correlation at all, but it is a coincidence. Usually restarting explorer.exe fixes this.

Right now I'm going to scan the PC for Trojans. I also just installed (switched to) Webroot Security Essentials. I've heard good things about it, so hopefully it's not that.
 
Yeah, Webroot turned up nothing but cookies.

Well, the file properties menu still works for it. Any way I can go in there and mess up all the file settings so that explorer can no longer use it? :D:P
 
Well, after trying everything I decided to mess around with it to see if I could get it to work. I made a new folder on the desktop, moved the file into it, and deleted the folder, and it worked. I'm not sure why it let me move it into the folder, because it didn't work before, but now the problem is solved. Thanks for all the help!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top