Problem with locked EXE files

karlsnooks said:

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Would you please give me the name of one program that gets "locked"?

as stated in my second post, things like games(alanwake.exe) that are installed from CD and then I try to update are already locked by explorer.
Or another example is InternetDownloadManager (idm.exe) that gets locked. I can update in safe mode OK, I have even tried rebooting then immediately updating a game and it still gets locked. Most of the update files are in either RAR or ZIP format and once unzipped are never have the unblock button on their properties page.

What process did you use to "install" the programs from CD? (AutoRun, Copy, Setup.exe, etc.)
Where do you "install" the programs and please explain what you mean by "I try to update"?
Do these programs show up in your Programs and Features listing? If they do, why are you deleting .EXE files?
Who's shown as the Owner of the Folder where the programs are installed? Is the Folder included in a Library?

carwiz said:

What process did you use to "install" the programs from CD? (AutoRun, Copy, Setup.exe, etc.)
Where do you "install" the programs and please explain what you mean by "I try to update"?
Do these programs show up in your Programs and Features listing? If they do, why are you deleting .EXE files?
Who's shown as the Owner of the Folder where the programs are installed? Is the Folder included in a Library?

Installed alanwake from CD using the setup into D:/games/AlanWake. I download the updates from the games support site and click the setup which launches the standard windows installer which then says the file is in use. The file is NOT in use in ANY taskmanager or process explorer(sysinternals). If I delete alanwake.exe then start the update setup it updates just fine.

Second example I downloaded from the internet using firefox a download manager called 'internet download manager' (IDM), which goes into my documents folder. I then download the update from the site using the download manager to a folder called C:\downloads. I then close the download manager and see that it HAS quit and there is no IDM.exe process running. I then start the update setup and get the SAME error and if I delete idm.exe then run the update it updates. So I try in safe mode and still get the same error that the file is running. I even try something different where I rename the IDM folder to IDMNEW, restart the PC and then rename the folder back to IDM after a windows has settled down. I try to update and the error is that IDM.exe is in use. I can unlock and delete these programs using unlocker which shows that explorer locks the programs ONLY after trying to update them. It NEVER locks them untill the files fiolder is opened or the setup tries to update the file.

OK, that sounds like something is grabbing the file. Perhaps your virus checker. What happens if you wait a while before applying the updates? Say 10-15 minutes.

Also, are you running any file sharing or Torrent software?

No torrent and virus checker is Microsoft Security Essentials. In Proccess explorer it just says EXPLORER.EXE has locked the file.