WiseCleaner Think Tank
Encounter difficult computer problems?
All about maintenance and optimization of your Windows System.
May 19, 2026
You've all seen this one. You try to delete or move a file and Windows tells you "The action can't be completed because the file is open in another program." But which program? The error rarely names it.
Windows 11 has two built-in ways to find the locking process without installing anything. One uses Resource Monitor, the other uses PowerShell. Pick whichever fits your workflow.
Press Win + R, type resmon, and press Enter. The Resource Monitor window opens.
Click the CPU tab at the top. Below the process list you'll see a section labeled Associated Handles.
In the Associated Handles search box, type part of your file name and press Enter. Any process currently holding a handle to that file appears below, with its PID. You can right-click the process and choose End Process to release the lock.
Press Win + X, then choose Terminal (Admin) or Windows PowerShell (Admin).
Type the following, replacing the path with your own file:
Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.Modules.FileName -like 'C:\path\to\your\file.ext' }
The output lists any process that has loaded the file. This works best for DLLs and EXEs. For data files held by file handles, Resource Monitor is more reliable.
Both methods get you to the same place: the name and PID of the process holding your file. Resource Monitor is friendlier when you just need an answer; PowerShell is better when you want to script the check. Either way, you don't need any extra software.
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