Delete a File or Folder Showing Error or "Access Is Denied"

Locate the file stored on your hard drive.

Once the file is located, right-click on it and choose properties and remove(uncheck) all the attributes of the file or folder.

Make a note of the file location.

Open a Command Prompt Window. You can do this by Clicking on Start, Run, and type CMD and Press Enter.

Leave the Command Prompt window open, but proceed to close all other open programs.

 Open the Windows Task Manager. You can do this in two ways :

Click on the Processes tab of the Windows Task Manager, click on the process named Explorer.exe and click on End Process and minimize Task Manager but leave it open.

Go back to the Command Prompt Window and follow the Sub-Steps to delete a file or folder. You can follow the example below.

To DELETE a FILE :

Assuming that your "My Documents" folder contains a file called "myFile.exe" which needs to be deleted.Follow the steps given below :

In Command Prompt window you will find a path :

C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ>

(where XYZ is the name of User Account).

Execute the following command in Command Prompt window : cd My Documents

(C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ>cd My Documents)

Now the path will be changed and it will look like :

C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ\My Documents>

Now use the DEL command to delete the offending file in Command Prompt Window.

Syntax : Type DEL <filename> (where <filename> is the file you wish to delete).

Example: C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ\My Documents>del myFile.exe

To DELETE a FOLDER :

Assuming that your "My Documents" folder contains another folder called "New Folder" which needs to be deleted.Follow the steps given below :

• In Command Prompt window you will find a path :

• C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ>

• (where XYZ is the name of User Account).

• Now use the RMDIR /S /Q command to delete the offending folder in Command Prompt Window.

• Syntax : Type RMDIR /S /Q "<path>" (where <path> is the Location of folder you wish to delete).

• Example: C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ>rmdir /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\XYZ\My Documents\New Folder"

Use ALT+TAB to go back to Task Manager. In Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the Windows shell.

Close the Task Manager. The file should now be deleted