There had been some tension around Unlocker among techies, after few recent versions came with stuff bundled (effectively switching app from being freeware to adware).
I caught few mentions of LockHunter (app to unlock plus delete locked files and more) both in and out of this context and decided to check it out.
What it does
As any other app of this kind LockHunter takes something in file system as input (files, folders and drives so pretty much anything).
Then attempts to determine what has it locked to (optionally) perform unlock and delete.
Strong features
What I like most about app that it focuses not only on delete itself, but on related processes as well. It visualizes nicely what processes have target locked and which files/folders exactly.
It also has cool (and potentially very destructive) option to delete files of all processes that lock file, instead of file itself. Very interesting and potentially awesome feature for cleaning up malware, will have to test in some real cases to evaluate.
There are both 32 and 64 bit versions available, important since most older apps of this kind don’t work on 64 bit Windows installations because of driver issues.
Downsides
Seems to be stuck in eternal beta and lacks portable version.
No drag and drop support. I am no fan of file selection dialogs and only FlashFolder makes them usable for me.
Overall
Solid utility with some distinguishing features, but sadly stalled development.
Home&download http://lockhunter.com/
Tabbles – non-standard take on file management
Make sense of WordPress excerpts and teasers
Delete locked files – Unlocker Vs FileASSASSIN
Defragment locked system files with PageDefrag
Nero DiscSpeed – optical drives and discs test
SpecialFoldersView shows all system folders
NetResView – helper utility for shared folders
Look up all files in use with OpenedFilesView
SpyDLL Remover – specialized library files lookup app
Easily find duplicate image files with VisiPics
Sharing files with HTTP File Server
I use OpenedFilesView. AFAIK, it does everything Unlocker and LockHunter do.
@Ralph
Hm, very good point. I do use OpenedFilesView but it never occurred to me to use it as file unlock+delete tool. Definitely something I should keep in mind for next time I need this.
Glad to see comment from you again, keep great suggestions coming. :)
One can still pick up MoveOnBoot–
http://www.softwarepatch.com/software/index.html
The site has numerous odds and ends.
@jasray
Yep, pending move approach is technically easier, but I think that ability to delete stuff without reboot is what makes apps such as LockHunter useful.