[SOLVED] Not able to delete folder.

[britechguy]

No, I meant not perpetually shutting down. Shutdown, with Fast Startup enabled, is nothing more than hibernation where only the OS system state, but not the user state(s), are written out to disk.

With the advent of Fast Startup, Shutdown no longer did what Shutdown had been doing for all time prior - completely shutting down power and leaving no trace of the prior state of Windows behind. Shutting down with Fast Startup enabled is, for all practical intents and purposes, hibernating the system.

We shall simply have to agree to disagree.

 

[Digerati]

Again, I am NOT, by any means, saying Fast Startup is problem free. But I am saying if it was as big or frequent a problem as you suggest it is, these forums and shops like mine would be inundated with users complaining about shutdown problems that go away just by disabling Fast Startup. But that is not happening.

 

[britechguy]

But I am saying if it was as big or frequent a problem as you suggest it is, these forums and shops like mine would be inundated with users complaining about shutdown problems that go away just by disabling Fast Startup.

I'll grant you, on the "highly frequent" list, issues with Fast Startup isn't there. On the "big when they occur" list, it's near the top. Some of the strangest and most difficult (until I figured out the pattern) issues I've encountered have been traceable to Fast Startup (or, in all likelihood, corruption of the hiberfile used by it, since Restart or turning off Fast Startup and doing a Shutdown/power-up cleared them).

I will take easy steps to avoid rare, but insanity-making, issues when I personally believe the benefit of a given thing is small to negligible. That's how I feel about the benefit of Fast Startup: it's negligible. I invite anyone to turn it off and make a comparison of how big a difference in boot up time they detect on most systems with HDDs. I challenge them to find any on machines with SSDs. I'm simply expressing my opinion, based on my own experiences, which are the reason for said opinion.

But to each his or her own!

 

[x BlueRobot]

I have always rebooted/restarted the PC and it doesn't seem to do anything. I am new to win10 so I don't anything about fast startup. I have also shutdown the PC and that didn't do anything as well.

Could you please download and run Process Explorer and then follow the steps listed in the second post of this Q&A thread?

How do you find what process is holding a file open in Windows?

Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals

 

[Han Solo]

I'm not sure what I did but I did search for the folder in the search box. Then I shut down some entries that were listed below in the lower pane that appears. I proceeded to delete the folder and it didn't work. For some reason for some folders that I type in whether it be the parent folder or it's folder sub folder I get 2 entries of the same folder.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Could you please provide a screenshot?

 

[Han Solo]

Here it is.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Have you tried killing and starting explorer.exe again?

How to Restart Windows’ Explorer.exe (Along with the Taskbar and Start Menu)

 

[Han Solo]

OK. I did use the method suggested by the article. After pressing the restart the folder did not restarted so I had to click on it myself. That didn't work. I decided to shut down the PC and unplug the power cord in order to press on the power button several times. After I restated the PC I went back to task manager and restarted windows explorer via the user tab and that also didn't work. Restarting the windows explorer via the user tab does restart the windows explorer in the sense that it disappears and reappears on the list. But then when I click on windows explorer to start it up there appears 2 entries of windows explorer on the list.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Restarting the windows explorer via the user tab does restart the windows explorer in the sense that it disappears and reappears on the list.

That's normal behavior. After restarting Windows Explorer did you attempt to the delete the folder again? Have you tried closing the individual file handles and then attempted to delete the folder?

 

[britechguy]

The behavior described persisting after the steps that have already been taken is atypical, to put it mildly. I am about to offer my "Standard Windows 10 Revival Script," and the parts about an infection and a recent update would not appear to be applicable here.

Any reader can take or leave the advice, but you could spend forever trying to figure out why what's happening is happening and still not succeed. If the idea is to get things back to normal, I'd start with the SFC/DISM step and proceed from there.

----------------------------------------

All of what follows presumes any issue that is occurring is not secondary to a malicious infection. If you believe it is, then your first order of business should be attempting to exorcise your system of said infection. That’s a topic of its own and won’t be covered here.

Also, certain issues point to device drivers being the most likely source underlying them. If that’s the case make sure you have gotten the latest device drivers from either your computer’s OEM support pages or the OEM support pages for the component (e.g., video card, WiFi card, printer, etc.) and installed those and tested afterward.

If you are experiencing unexpected issues immediately or very shortly after any Windows update has been applied, then the first thing you should do is use the Windows 10 built-in capability to uninstall the latest update that’s suspected of causing the issue:

• Open Settings, Update & Security. This should take you to the Windows Update Pane by default.
• In the Windows Update Pane, locate the View update history control, and activate it.
• In the View Update History dialog, locate the Uninstall updates link and activate it.
• In the Installed Updates dialog, the updates will be listed in groupings, with the groups alphabetically ordered, and the items within each group ordered by date – most recently installed first (if no one has changed the defaults). In most cases, you’ll be looking to uninstall a Microsoft Windows update, and those are generally the final group. The number of updates available for uninstalling is shown in parentheses after the Microsoft Windows group name.
• Almost all Windows Updates will have a KB number associated with them, and if you know that use this as what you search on for the actual update. Select it.
• Activate the Uninstall button located above the list of updates, and the selected update will be uninstalled.

If it’s not an update that’s suspected of causing an issue, there are other steps you can take. Before going any further, it must be noted that a repair install (or feature update, when those are being done) allows one to keep all of one's files and apps (desktop/installed and store varieties). This is in complete contrast to a Reset (which allows either keeping just one’s files or wiping everything), or a Refresh/Fresh Start or Completely Clean Reinstall, both of which wipe everything.

My standard advice, in virtually all cases, (and presuming any potential infection has already been addressed, first) is trying the following, in the order specified. It is also presumed that you will have made a complete system image backup, and a separate user data backup, prior to using options two or three. If the issue is fixed by option one then there's no need to go further. Stop whenever your issue is fixed:

1. Using SFC (System File Checker) and DISM (Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management) to Repair Windows 8 & 10


2. Doing a Windows 10 Repair Install or Feature Update Using the Windows 10 ISO file


3. Doing a completely clean reinstall (options a & b are downloadable PDF files):

a) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

b) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive

c) How to do a CLEAN Installation of Windows 10 (Tom’s Hardware Forums, with screen shots)

I never choose the “thermonuclear option,” the completely clean reinstall, until it's clear that this is the only viable option. I hate having to go through all the work of reconfiguring a machine from scratch if that can reasonably and safely be avoided.

 

[Han Solo]

That's normal behavior. After restarting Windows Explorer did you attempt to the delete the folder again? Have you tried closing the individual file handles and then attempted to delete the folder?

Yes. I did attempt to delete the folder and it didn't work. I don't know how close the individual file handles.

 

[Han Solo]

The behavior described persisting after the steps that have already been taken is atypical, to put it mildly. I am about to offer my "Standard Windows 10 Revival Script," and the parts about an infection and a recent update would not appear to be applicable here.

Any reader can take or leave the advice, but you could spend forever trying to figure out why what's happening is happening and still not succeed. If the idea is to get things back to normal, I'd start with the SFC/DISM step and proceed from there.

----------------------------------------

All of what follows presumes any issue that is occurring is not secondary to a malicious infection. If you believe it is, then your first order of business should be attempting to exorcise your system of said infection. That’s a topic of its own and won’t be covered here.

Also, certain issues point to device drivers being the most likely source underlying them. If that’s the case make sure you have gotten the latest device drivers from either your computer’s OEM support pages or the OEM support pages for the component (e.g., video card, WiFi card, printer, etc.) and installed those and tested afterward.

If you are experiencing unexpected issues immediately or very shortly after any Windows update has been applied, then the first thing you should do is use the Windows 10 built-in capability to uninstall the latest update that’s suspected of causing the issue:

• Open Settings, Update & Security. This should take you to the Windows Update Pane by default.
• In the Windows Update Pane, locate the View update history control, and activate it.
• In the View Update History dialog, locate the Uninstall updates link and activate it.
• In the Installed Updates dialog, the updates will be listed in groupings, with the groups alphabetically ordered, and the items within each group ordered by date – most recently installed first (if no one has changed the defaults). In most cases, you’ll be looking to uninstall a Microsoft Windows update, and those are generally the final group. The number of updates available for uninstalling is shown in parentheses after the Microsoft Windows group name.
• Almost all Windows Updates will have a KB number associated with them, and if you know that use this as what you search on for the actual update. Select it.
• Activate the Uninstall button located above the list of updates, and the selected update will be uninstalled.

If it’s not an update that’s suspected of causing an issue, there are other steps you can take. Before going any further, it must be noted that a repair install (or feature update, when those are being done) allows one to keep all of one's files and apps (desktop/installed and store varieties). This is in complete contrast to a Reset (which allows either keeping just one’s files or wiping everything), or a Refresh/Fresh Start or Completely Clean Reinstall, both of which wipe everything.

My standard advice, in virtually all cases, (and presuming any potential infection has already been addressed, first) is trying the following, in the order specified. It is also presumed that you will have made a complete system image backup, and a separate user data backup, prior to using options two or three. If the issue is fixed by option one then there's no need to go further. Stop whenever your issue is fixed:

1. Using SFC (System File Checker) and DISM (Deployment Imaging Servicing and Management) to Repair Windows 8 & 10


2. Doing a Windows 10 Repair Install or Feature Update Using the Windows 10 ISO file


3. Doing a completely clean reinstall (options a & b are downloadable PDF files):

a) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

b) Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive

c) How to do a CLEAN Installation of Windows 10 (Tom’s Hardware Forums, with screen shots)

I never choose the “thermonuclear option,” the completely clean reinstall, until it's clear that this is the only viable option. I hate having to go through all the work of reconfiguring a machine from scratch if that can reasonably and safely be avoided.

I have used SFC and DISM to no avail. I am a bit apprehensive about using the method about doing a Windows 10 repair install since it looks like all I will be doing is reinstalling Windows 10 Pro. Also this problem has exist since before I upgraded my PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

 

[britechguy]

Also this problem has exist since before I upgraded my PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Well, and this is said with no insult intended, you cannot expect a house built upon a faulty foundation to be stable. If the issue predates your Windows 10 upgrade then something was likely wrong with your Windows 7 installation, too.

And doing a repair install really comes as close to doing a "nuke and pave" completely clean install as you can get without actually doing one. If that's enough to get you an actually cleaned-up Win10 installation, and often it is, then your problem is solved. If it doesn't then you're left with the only logical option if this issue is something you simply cannot tolerate: A Completely Clean Reinstall of Windows 10.

There's really nothing further I can offer unless you were to have questions when trying something I've suggested. So I will bow out unless that should occur.

 

[Sysnative Windows Update]

Let's see if the file is visible on the FRST Scan:

Step#1 - FRST Scan

1. Please download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool and save it to your Desktop.
Note: You need to run the 64-bit Version so please ensure you download that one.
2. Right-click FRST64.exe and click Run as Administrator to run it as administrator. When the tool opens, click Yes to disclaimer.
3. Please ensure you place a check mark in the Addition.txt check box at the bottom of the form before running (if not already checked).
4. Press Scan button.
5. It will produce a log called FRST.txt in the same directory the tool is run from (which should now be the desktop)
6. Please attach the log back here.
7. Another log (Addition.txt - also located in the same directory as FRST64.exe) will be generated Please also attach that along with the FRST.txt in your reply.

 

[Han Solo]

The problem has now been resolved. It turns out that this folder was originally unzipped and so the naming of the folders was not my convention. Also the contents of the folder were intended for MAC users as well as Window users. So the folder contained STORE files and other MAC related files that I decided to delete. With the help of a fellow member through PM I tried to use all sorts of commands via Windows Powershell. The results were mixed where Powershell was able to detect the parent folder but got stuck on one of the sub folders. When softwaremaniac asked that I run the FRST scan I found that the scan complied a list of the folders I have in the downloads folder. While skimming through that list I found a folder that I had completely forgotten about. The folder contained an app called Unblocker (UNLOCKER 1.9.2 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB). I thought I give a try and the first thing the application tries to do is look for the handles which is what someone suggested I do but really didn't how. The application offers to delete the folder (object) and in my case it did for most of the sub folders except for one. For that last folder I was able to individually delete the files in that folder one at a time and when that was done I was able to delete the folder with this application. It's weird because originally opening that stubborn folder appeared as if it were empty. In retrospect I could have set windows explorer to show hidden files and could have been able to see the files in order to delete them.
As I was trying different things out I decided to go to the main folder's properties and uncheck the read only attributes. Doing that resulted in the process being stopped in this problematic folder and also another one as I discovered. This new folder was also unzipped around the same time as the other one. In both cases I decided to move the contents of these folders to another newly created folder and later deal with deleting the folders. This second folder had no mac files and gave me no problems when I used Unblocker to delete it.

 

[x BlueRobot]

Thanks for letting us know how you managed to fix the issue. It appears that it was likely due to issues with the security permissions on the file.