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meirl
by /u/AustraliaOutback | 116 comments | 2026-06-16T07:21:00+00:00 Central
Comments
| /u/ThistleChill "Omg can i speak to your task manager please?" |
| /u/lucifer-_-senpai "And restart window explorer" |
| /u/ConanOToole "sorry my task manager isn't responding right now 😬" |
| /u/Mathev Oh no, my finger slowly moves towards the power button what will I doooo |
| /u/CreatureWarrior Pl- please don't touch me there, it's such a turn off |
| /u/The_Duc_Lord We probably shouldn't post too much about the power button fail safe. There's lots of AI scraping on reddit and we might need to keep that one up our sleeve for later. |
| /u/thyme_cardamom Omg task manager has no idea either |
| /u/processorT1 omg please call your device manager or anyone from the computer management |
| /u/LegSad9878 This is exactly what I mean. I miss being able to just call someone and sort things out. Now it's all forms, chatbots, and emails. Good luck talking to an actual human |
| /u/Peach_Twirl It's always some background process with a name like "Service Host (32)" |
| /u/MootEndymion752 Wanted to uninstall a corrupted font a few days ago and the files were in use by Service Host so I literally cannot stop of it because Windows bluescreens when you kill it |
| /u/Fullblodsneger Does Windows still have safe mode? That's what I had to do with drivers and such things back in the day. |
| /u/GoodhartMusic That's what I was gonna rec from a macOS background it's literally the only way to delete a third party file that is system locked |
| /u/RogerBernards yes, it does. Windows 11 has an option to reboot in safe mode under system -> recovery -> Advanced Startup, select restart now and upon reboot you can select several safe mode options. Or hold Shift while selecting Restart from the power menu, to get the same result. |
| /u/_blort How to put Windows into Safe Mode: 1) Power off your PC 2) That's it |
| /u/SuperCow1127 svchost.exe is a wrapper, and there's probably many instances of it running that you can kill without blue screening. In task manager there's a service tab you can use to find which is the problem and stop the service gracefully. Also, if you're struggling to find which process has a lock on a file, procmon from Microsoft Sysinternals is a godsend. |
| /u/UnreliableNarr8or For me, it's usually Windows Explorer itself. |
| /u/tritonice Oh! That's any easy fix, just delete the \windows\system32 folder and you are all good to go! /s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s/s |
| /u/SoakedSighs This irritated me so much. And I remember this being the case even in older Windows systems, like 98. I remember getting a virus once. Found the infected file. Can't delete it, it is being used. WHAT is using it? Of course a virus itself was using it. Windows wouldn't tell me which process to kill, because fuck logic. Had to boot the fucker in safe-mode and go from there. But since it was Windows 98 and nothing fucking ever worked on it properly, the solution was the 'old reliable' windows fucking reinstall. I tried a fucking Linux after that, but since it was late 90s - Linux was just about as user friendly as Australian wildlife in heat. |
| /u/aksdb An executable that is being executed cannot be deleted (since unused pages might simply point to the file on disk to be loaded into memory when needed). The virus running can then - as is its nature - manipulate memory or system calls to hide itself from process iterations making it pretty hard to find the running process or kill it. So yeah... the virus kinda protected itself. Clever actually. |
| /u/No-Refrigerator-1672 An executable that is being executed cannot be deleted On windows. Linux'es filesystem (ext4) can totally handle such deletion; it'll just hold the physical space reserved until the process stops, and let it read. |
| /u/upofadown Pretty much any filesystem on any unix style OS can handle file deletions properly. It's just Windows that is broken. |
| /u/LivingVerinarian96 Nah. Dogshit design decisions from Microsoft. |
| /u/aksdb It was Windows 98.... So a glorified UI for DOS. For what it was supposed to do it was ok. Of course there's a reason even the consumer focused OS line switched to the NT kernel. |
| /u/LivingVerinarian96 I mean it's not that much better today if defender doesn't catch the virus. In many areas windows is actually regressing and the recently announced quality enhancement plan seems to need a couple years until we feel any effects. |
| /u/Toiun 95 was a glorified UI for dos, 98 actually had drivers and graphics acceleration and other modules that make it way more modern. It was a huge jump at the time but still very shit. |
| /u/acetylcholine_123 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/file -locksmith |
| /u/Ok_Tea_7319 Why not swap the pages into ram (or the swapfile)? This requirement is so annoying. |
| /u/aquabaquap Maybe you shouldn't have fucked Linux but install it on your PC and try that. |
| /u/lana_silver Nowadays, Linux is perfectly suitable for a PC. Modern distros include everything you need, no hacking around required, especially if you're on a desktop machine and don't need a weird wifi driver. ChatGPT is extremely useful as a helper if something doesn't work because this stuff is well documented. You want to change an obscure setting? Just tell it that you have distro X and what you want to do, you'll get a working solution 99% of the time. Valve's Proton has solved gaming compatibility. Unless the game in question requires kernel level anti-cheat, stuff just runs. Better yet, you can enforce stuff onto the game via proton which you cannot on windows, for example set a specific screen and resolution, and proton will hide all other screens from the game, solving any issues that the game's bad multi screen support causes. Looking at you, Lies of P. |
| /u/LordHammercyWeCooked "Sorry that rampant AI bullshit has ruined your OS. Have you considered trying a different OS and asking AI to help you with it?" |
| /u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG What makes Proton work better / more efficiently / on a wider range of targets than Wine? |
| /u/AnEagleisnotme Proton is wine, what makes proton special though, is that it uses bubblewrap to ship it's own dependencies, which makes it significantly more reproducible. GPU driver are basically the only source of variance between linux installs these days, so it makes fixing bugs a LOT easier, and makes edge cases significantly rarer. It also allows you to run modern games on a computer that's not been updated in years, like LTS distros (Although, again, gpu drivers, things can, and will, go wrong) |
| /u/BackgroundSummer5171 Can't remember, but could you still log in on dos back then and delete it there? Since nothing is really running. I honestly don't remember getting viruses, probably did, probably did what you did and just reinstall windows. Fuck it method. Then reinstall stuff. Then defrag! |
| /u/mmazing Wait until you learn about "uninterruptible sleep" https://eklitzke.org/uninterruptible-sleep |
| /u/rererexed I remember I had a uninstaller installed to uninstall stuff like this. Iirc correctly it worked pretty well. |
| /u/9447044 "Strange, it seems somthing is using the file" |
| /u/Cute-Magazine-1274 if you care enough to make this a non-issue, you can install PowerToys and use the File Locksmith utility, it should tell you the process, and is also capable of terminating said process. |
| /u/JohnFury77 If it can be done, then it's baffling it isn't part of windows out of the box |
| /u/killerghosting Yeah baffling it doesn't come with some program that automatically restarts the computer if you accidentally kill a task that the computer absolutely needs |
| /u/Expensive-Border-869 Give it a fuckin popup window "hey this is gonna restart are you sure you wish to proceed?" Even better how about a description of what each task is doing or they could group them by important and unimportant. They could handle it in the back ground for you and close the task if you're trying to (after asking if that's okay) You act like this is some crazy shit for users to have |
| /u/killerghosting I was completely serious and not sarcastic. I would prefer to be able to terminate ANY program I damn well please. If the computer cannot run without it, I'm ok with the computer restarting. With that I can learn what not to kill. But your solution sounds better... |
| /u/ldb If it dies, it dies. |
| /u/LordHammercyWeCooked Sounds like what you guys want is Linux. Can confirm, it is a much more civilized OS these days. Also can confirm, it will happily swan dive right off a cliff if you ask it to take two steps forward. |
| /u/Deprisonne The funny thing is, windows actually already does this. If you terminate a process in the task manager that is essential for it to run, it warns you that the machine will restart if you proceed. |
| /u/Lenassa There are things worse than restarts. And you'll probably be surprised with the number of people who don't read and just click yes,yes,yes,agree,agree. |
| /u/Expensive-Border-869 Idc what people who don't read do. It doesnt concern me if some idiot messes up their computer. I know that they dont read those people deserve to suffer. |
| /u/Lenassa Well, MS is a "proper" company unlike Linux. With tech support and stuff. Users who don't read have a tendency of trying to make their problems others'. In other words, they'll just start spamming MS support with generic "why my computer broke pls send help". And MS doesn't want that, that's why Windows doesn't expose those options through a built-in gui/cli but only programmatically. |
| /u/MrAmos123 That's literally what BSOD is for. So yes, it does. |
| /u/Spiritual-Company273 Imagine if McAfee paid Microsoft millions of dollars to make it look like McAfee is a system program and if you kill it in task manager Windows will be forced to Restart and you can't uninstall it if the program is running. |
| /u/killerghosting Then I will do what I already do, which is avoid Windows. |
| /u/Expensive-Border-869 The amlunt of stuff windows doesnt habe out of the box is insane. But they had to make room for the stuff no one wants |
| /u/Low-Branch1423 It can, its resource manager, under disk. |
| /u/hfcRedd The best part is that PowerToys is also developed by Microsoft. It fixes and extends a lot of Windows stuff. Why isn't it just part of Windows? Who knows |
| /u/ciaramicola Well it kinda is, powertoys are made by Microsoft they just don't come installed by default |
| /u/Juxtavarious You can say that about the greater 90% of functionalities that have been either removed from Windows straight up or never added to an official build. So many things you would think should be a basic function of the operating system itself or at least some programs standard to the startup process are all regularly missing. |
| /u/RandomNobodyEU Like searching for files. You'd think the operating system'd be good at it. |
| /u/autogyrophilia The problem windows has with that it is that it is overengineered. There is a database, which in newer versions is based in Sqlite3 which was a massive upgrade as the other struggled after 200.000 entries, which are very easy to reach, specially if you used outlook. This database allows you to both register providers so that it can search inside documents like Excels, get media attributes such as how long a video is, and register applications, so that applications like thunderbird and outlook can hook into it. Which Outlooks needs, thunderbird, only if you want the emails to be searchable from the start menu. When used to the maximum potential (now that the performance bottleneck has been fixed) it is great, you read an index, which points to the exact location of the files, instead of having to read GBs of MFT entries (the filesystem database). And you can filter by a lot of parameters. The problem is that most people want to query the filename, and for these people, the search function is just getting on the way. Furthermore, recently created files may not be added to the database, and NVMe SSDs are so fast that directly scanning for a filename may still be faster. The windows search service can be disabled to make it work that way. |
| /u/stoneimp The problem is that most people want to query the filename It is absurd that Windows hasn't put this in as a toggle or something. But no, Windows stopped listening directly to consumers over a decade ago, how would they know what features are hated and which are loved? They only know which features make their chosen telemetry numbers go up. |
| /u/ConfusedTapeworm type "repo", briefly see the start menu highlight the "report.xlsx" file in your recently used, and hit enter to open it again (btw the file "report.xlsx", a file that you've created on your machine, has been automatically uploaded to Microsoft™ OneDrive®'s cloud storage but you don't know it yet, despite your never even having explicitly set any system settings to that effect, but fuck you :D) It launches Microsoft™ Edge®, which is not your default browser, and searches "Repo Man (1984)" on Microsoft™ Bing®, which is not your default search engine A second Microsoft™ Edge® tab opens on its own to make you sign an EULA A large notification pops up on the bottom right of your screen, telling you to make Microsoft™ Edge® your default browser |
| /u/PM_Me_Good_LitRPG It isn't that baffling, really. Windows operates like a monopoly / oligopoly-stage business. It simply no longer cares about staying competitive, going out of its way to improve product quality, etc. |
| /u/MrAmos123 It is. Resource Monitor -> CPU -> Select all Processes -> Associated Handles -> Search Handles Not user-friendly, sure, but it's easily possible. |
| /u/LauraLaughter You can also use resmon out of the box |
| /u/Low-Branch1423 And resource monitor won't require you to download software from some random site. |
| /u/LucyLilium92 PowerToys is a utility written by Microsoft |
| /u/mainman879 PowerToys is not from a random site, its literally from microsoft.com. It's first party software. |
| /u/autogyrophilia Resource monitor does not list file handles, just activity. You can use ProcMon however. |
| /u/RiFLE_csgo I was coming to say this. I installed PowerToys specifically for File Locksmith. |
| /u/sepulchore It can be done like that, but its an issue with how windows is shit, it should be inside windows from the start |
| /u/Heisenburgo Thanks for recommending this |
| /u/Confident_Draw321 Task Manager knows. Task Manager just isn't a snitch. |
| /u/Son_Chidi Maybe a hacker is logged into your system and stealing your info, for hackers privacy windows can't tell you what program is the hacker using. |
| /u/PMMeCatPicture open resource manager in the CPU handle search section, enter the filename close process keeping the handle But yeah, fuck windows for not giving you an option to just do it from the explorer prompt. |
| /u/RoyaleWhiskey "You need to be an administrator to perform this action" I am the only person who has or will ever use this computer you digital fuck, I am the administrator. |
| /u/krelpwang "In that case: Please contact your administrator to grand you access rights." |
| /u/jfbwhitt *Try to delete folder* "You do not have permission to delete this" "I'm literally logged in as admin" *opens up folder, individually delete everything inside, then delete the empty folder with no issue* |
| /u/OkUnit08 Windows acting like it's protecting a witness. |
| /u/Arachnidle Turning off the computer will log out other user... what other user?! |
| /u/Hinermad My favorite variation was Windows Update on (I think) Windows 7. Windows Update: "Click Restart to finish installing updates." Me: (Clicks Restart) Windows: "Unable to restart. A window is still open." Windows: "Windows Update." |
| /u/RogueCurves Don't worry, BlackRock will buy them all anyway |
| /u/soulfirethewolf idk what private equity has to do with a poor architectural decision but ok |
| /u/Hootnany Power toys have a solution, look into that |
| /u/MakeChipsNotMeth I love Power Toys. The fact that it isn't standard on all windows installs blows my mind. |
| /u/MyUsernameName4 I have 2 different programs that tell you exactly what is using the file! |
| /u/rydan In Linux or MacOS you also can't delete a file while it is being used. It will tell you that you successfully deleted it but it is still there silently waiting in the shadows. At least Windows is being honest. |
| /u/ThatHoFortuna Linux? I thought Linux let you delete the kernel while the system was still running and then your computer crashes with a bunch of weird screaming, and lightning and smoke billowing out of the case? |
| /u/OneLonelyBrainCell You can delete files that are in use in Linux. The thing is that, for example, if you have an image file open in an image editor and you delete that file, its data is still in the image editor. Many apps are smart enough to tell you, "hey, you deleted that file you were working on. I still have it in memory -- want me to save it?" |
| /u/kyubish_ Well what do you count as deleted? On those systems the file is no longer accessible by its path as soon as it's deleted. Yes, it stays readable to processes that had it open before, but you can't open it again. |
| /u/PeterVN13032010 powertoy file locksmith |
| /u/Diggedypomme This is the answer. It's an official Microsoft tool, part of powertoys, and there's a page about it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/fil e-locksmith. It adds an option on the file right click in Explorer, and you can click to end the task doing it, or you can drag and drop files into it. (and yes, it's dumb that windows doesn't just add this functionality by default) |
| /u/TheRollingPeepstones I remember using Unlocker for this a lot. |
| /u/chezdistester "You don't have administrative credentials 🫢" |
| /u/ThatHoFortuna "Can I have administrative credentials then?" "Hmm... Sure, you can have a little one." "A little credential? Will that let me delete the file?" "So can I have the big credential?" "No, you need the big credential to give yourself that. You can now change the icon for the file, though." |
| /u/Katent1 If you need there is powertoys app, it has file unlocker, you open it as admin, open file, directory with it and you got list of processes using them, with button to kill em. Still should be a feature build in, but hope this helps |
| /u/Son-Airys WHO TF IS A COM SURROGATE!? |
| /u/Admirable-Food9942 Me: "Hey linux, delete this file?" Me: "Hey linux, why aren't you booting?" Linux: "You deleted the boot manager, login system, tty, and sudo" |
| /u/WeeertjeGilders If only you could actually own your operating system like with Linux. |
| /u/Kaleouleilah Oh no here comes the Linux guy 🤡 |
| /u/Vistella then you still couldnt delete a file in use |
| /u/OkAlbatross9889 You can nuke your entire computer with one command and as long as you preface it with sudo it'll let you do it, there's no world where linux stops you from killing a process |
| /u/Vistella you can nuke your entire commander in windows as well by just removing a single file. dont ask me how i know |
| /u/OkAlbatross9889 Then how come windows doesn't let you kill a process without having to resort to some other third party program everyone seems to be mentioning? |
| /u/Vistella how is that relevant to nuking your computer? (also powertools isnt 3rd party) |
| /u/OkAlbatross9889 I mentioned the nuking because it kinda proves that linux has next to no guardrails, there's nothing it will prevent you from doing especially killing a certain process like you make it seem |
| /u/Lenassa I mean, you can do that type of stuff on Windows too. You can also forcibly close that file in other process that has it opened without killing the process itself. It's just that giving access to these instruments through a simple gui/cli is a sure way to bury your tech support under an unfathomable number of "why my shit breaks down" tickets. Linux isn't a company like MS so some user's problems are that user's problems. |
| /u/Admirable-Food9942 Actually, not sure about others, but in arch atleast, sometimes even Sudo doesn't have enough privilege, such as "echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger" which requires root(either login as root on start or "su - root"). |
| /u/kyubish_ $ sudo rm /bin/rm $ rm --help bash: rm: command not found |
| /u/OkWear6556 You can. It does not lock your files on disk while being in use. |
| /u/Vistella it hides them, it doesnt delete them |
| /u/OkWear6556 Linux does not distinguish between deleting a file in use and a file not in use when deleting it. If you open a file and delete it, it will not prevent you from deleting it. Once you close the program that is keeping the file open, the file descriptor closes and the space on the disk can be overwritten. If you mean that no data is actually deleted if you delete a file, then you are correct, as you only delete the pointer to the file and not the data itself. But this happens regardless. Deleting the file does not mean deleting the data. |
| /u/Impossible_Wait_8326 Or better yet, you deleted only your find it's still there when you reboot. |
| /u/FunTeases Restarts the PC in anger |
| /u/Mother_Passenger8589 Use task manager to force programs to stop and then try and shut down laptop "Can't shut down, Task Manager is open" |
| /u/Reemixt Mac users are unusually quiet today 🫣 |
| /u/echoinacave We're all busy waiting for external drives to eject. |
| /u/rydan Because Mac users are just lied to. If you delete a file while it is being used on a Mac it just stays on the disk but becomes invisible to you. |