netbioswindows
I have a list of netbios workgroups that I can see with "net view" on Windows 7. One of these workgroups is there due to a typo error on another machine, that has since been corrected. I want to remove this stale entry.
I have tried:
nbtstat -R
nbtstat -RR
but when I redo "net view" the erroneous workgroup is still there.
How to I purge the cache that "net view" displays ?
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"
Best Answer
It should disappear all by itself. "Workgroup" names you are seeing with
net vieware held by a group of computers running the "Browser" service and having been elected as master or backup browsers for your subnet. The registrations are made by Windows hosts claiming to be part of a certain workgroup. There is no functionality in the protocol to actively remove the names, but the registrations age out automatically after a while if not renewed. From the relevant documentation:It should be added that browsing as means to discover resources in a network has been deprecated. The protocol's roots reach back to LanManager in the late 1980 and it is regarded mostly inappropriate for modern networks' needs.