StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Well, this has become a big problem recently. Over time, I'm seeing Windows inexplicably marking files as being accessed, while in reality nothing is accessing them. Is there a tool I can use that can detect these file opens, and possibly force close them? Damage to the file aside, of course.

Try this shell extension called WhoLockMe?.

I personally use Unlocker.

If the files you are having a problem with are incomplete video files or video files in general (it is more often a problem with the incomplete ones) the problem is the explorers thumbnail preview generator for video files. I usualy disable it (google it a bit, the advice how to do it is common) since its simply too finicky and annoying for bascily no benefit (I'd say that 50% of videos get a black first frame as their preview - yay, thats helpful, NOT).

And if you don't want to use a third-party tool, you can boot into safe mode (hit F8 before the windows logo appears to get the menu options) and delete the offending file that way. Not a foolproof solution by any means, but most of the time it works.

Turns out the video file preview was the one giving Windows trouble. Nice job Microsoft... Found this out using sysinternals' handle utility, for some reason it just grabs a file and holds onto it...with no reason whatsoever.