Solved Looking for Unlocker-like tool to work on Windows 8

I've been using a tool called Unlocker on my Windows XP through Windows 7 with a great success. It was an amazing tool, but since I switched to Windows 8 it no longer works. I.e. it doesn't show files being locked when they clearly are. Moreover I tried contacting a developer and received no response. Unfortunately it seems like that tool is dead.

So I was curious, people who use Windows 8, is there a tool to unlock files and folders? To prevent messages like this:



that unfortunately at this point can be only resolved by a rebooting which is very inconvenient.

Hello DC,

Odd, the latest version of Unlocker works in Windows 8 for me.

If you like, you could add "Take Ownership" to the context menu to make it easier to take ownership and allow administrators full permission of items.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2814-take-ownership-add-context-menu-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong? I installed that same version from that same web site. Then I right-click a folder I want to unlock and pick "Unlocker", right? My user account is not an admin, so I have to type in my password in the UAC prompt. But then the Unlocker window comes up empty when the folder is clearly locked.

I also tried your Take Ownership link and it didn't work because this is not about taking ownership. That Windows message is totally misleading. What happens is that some sloppily written program opens a handle to a file somewhere in that folder and doesn't release it. On my Windows 7 system, almost 90% of the locks came from Adobe products -- stuff like Acrotray, whatever that *&^$ is.

Anyway, I hope someone can suggest an alternative to Unlocker? Because I"m really missing that functionality!

You might see if you may be able to use Unlocker while signed in an administrator account instead of just through the UAC prompt.

Just tried... the same thing

You might see how these free programs may work for your.

Malwarebytes : Remove any locked file with FileASSASSIN

LockHunter is a free 64/32 bit tool to delete files blocked by any processes

Brink said:

You might see how these free programs may work for your.

Malwarebytes : Remove any locked file with FileASSASSIN

LockHunter is a free 64/32 bit tool to delete files blocked by any processes

Click to expand...

Sorry for this delay. I came back to thank you for these links.

I installed LockHunter and it worked perfectly! It is way better than Unlocker and it seems like it's still supported and developed.

Thanks again.

You're welcome. I'm glad to hear it worked for you.

unlocker win8

i know this thread is long dead. but i couldn't stop posting as i too encountered the unlocker problem in win8.

i'm using win8 sl 64-bit (en). my enterprise uses 3 different windows 8 versions. and at least one each 32-bit and 64-bit setups on two separate standalones for software testing. i have personally tested unlocker on each of the win8 machines. the bare fact: IT DOESN'T WORK! i don't know how brink has claimed it works for him???

as brink has put it, lockhunter works very good in win8 all versions. the developer claimed right. the only overwhelming feature is that even with the right click>"what is locking this file?", lockhunter has to be started as an application to unlock any file. the main program window opens which is somewhat intimidating. i guess it could have been devised more on the lines of unlocker in which only the information window about the locking process is shown with options to copy/rename/delete.

however, lockhunter is a very cleverly designed software. i thank the developers for having initiated it on the win8 platform.