{"id":151315,"date":"2026-03-11T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T04:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/?p=151315"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T04:01:07","slug":"how-to-delete-system-locked-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/how-to-delete-system-locked-files\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Delete System Locked Files"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"daves-3604977730\" class=\"daves-single-post-before-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div><p>I tried to delete some video files, but I kept receiving an error indicating the files were locked by the system. I opened<strong> Task Manager<\/strong> by right-clicking the Taskbar and clicking \u201c<strong>Task Manager<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>There were five instances of <strong>Windows Explorer<\/strong> open, so I right-clicked on each one and then clicked \u201c<strong>End task<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-151316\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer-640x413.jpg\" alt=\"task-manager-windows-explorer-end-task\" width=\"640\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer-640x413.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer-350x226.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer-150x97.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer-768x496.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Windows-Explorer.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Taskbar disappeared, and my screen went black. Still in Task Manager, I clicked <strong>File -&gt; Run new task, then<\/strong>\u00a0typed <strong>explorer.exe<\/strong> in the \u201c<strong>Create new task<\/strong>\u201d box. Clicked <strong>OK<\/strong>. This brought back the Desktop and Taskbar.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-151317\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task-640x402.jpg\" alt=\"task-manager-file-run-new-task-create-explorer.exe\" width=\"640\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task-640x402.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task-350x220.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task-150x94.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task-768x483.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Task-Manager-Create-New-Task.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I went to the video folder, but still couldn\u2019t delete them. The system error was gone, but the files were still locked and opened by another program.<\/p><div id=\"daves-3927659642\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I knew what was going on. I recently streamed these files from my computer to my TV. My monitor is only 18\u201d, my TV is 42&#8243;.<\/p>\n<p>I knew what I had to do. On my <strong>Android TV box<\/strong>, I went to the <strong>Settings menu.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Settings -&gt; Device Settings -&gt; Apps -&gt; VLC -&gt; Force Stop<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I accepted the prompts and solved the problem. VLC still had the files locked. All files have now been deleted.<\/p><div id=\"daves-1071423537\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-2 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/?s=streaming\">For more streaming articles, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<div id=\"daves-3188478271\" class=\"daves-after-content daves-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"3225321574\" \ndata-ad-format=\"autorelaxed\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I tried to delete some video files, but I kept receiving an error indicating the files were locked by the system. I opened Task Manager by right-clicking the Taskbar and clicking \u201cTask Manager\u201d. There were five instances of Windows Explorer open, so I right-clicked on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2084,"featured_media":138919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[931],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-no-category-selected"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}