If a file is in use, you cannot enforce deleting it. This is the very important protective feature of most modern OS. Without it, the system could not behave in a stable way. You can only kill the process holding the file and only then remove it. But don't do it. You need to do proper clean-up instead and make sure the processes close the files when they are not using (or, just the opposite, hold them to prevent deleting them and, optionally, the modifications).
Now, the question is: what process holds the file in question? This is easy to investigate.
First of all, the similar question was asked here many times, and from this experience I know: in most cases the blocking process is your own process. You could have forgotten to dispose/close something in the same application. So, first of all, check it up. To explore this possibility, please see my past answer:
Clearing a Handle in C#[
^].
In this answer, pay attention for the using of the
using statement which helps you to guarantee that appropriate file system object is properly disposed after use, not keeping the file locked.
In some cases, you really need to investigate which process holds which file. For this, I recommend using one utility from the
Sysinternals Suite. This set of utilities (formerly from
Winternals company, presently at Microsoft) is a must-have for any developer, please see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062[
^],
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb545027[
^].
The utility you need is "
handle.exe", please see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655[
^].
In your case, you use it with file name parameter:
handle.exe <file_name>
This utility will scan all kinds of handles, not just file handles. For file, it will scan all file handles matching the file name (so it does not have to be a full path name) and return information sufficient to identify each process, including its
pid. So, if you need more information on a process in question, you can also use other Sysinternals utilities, in particular, its
Process Explorer:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653[
^].
Good luck,
—SA
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