Sharing with Windows File Services in 2008R2

I've had success with Sysinternals Process Explorer. With this, you can search to find what process(es) have a file open, and you can use it to close the handle(s) if you want. Of course, it is safer to close the whole process. Exercise caution and judgement.

To find a specific file, use the menu option Find->Find Handle or DLL... Type in part of the path to the file. The list of processes will appear below.

If you prefer command line, Sysinternals suite includes command line tool Handle, that lists open handles.

Examples

• c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "e:\" (finds all files opened from drive e:\"
• c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "file-or-path-in-question"

If this is Windows XP Home, you won't be able to see that context menu without some registry hacking. If this is Windows XP Professional, you might need to disable Simple File Sharing. In a Windows Explorer windows, go to Tools --> Folder Options. Click on the "View" tab and scroll all the way down. Uncheck the box that says "Use simple file sharing."