Deleted user but user files are undeletable

From my husband's Admin account, I deleted my own User Account, but the account is still there (with a lock icon on it) and I am unable to delete it (gives me the message that the folder is open or in use by another program). I changed the owner to my husband (checked the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects") as suggested on this thread and I still can't delete it.

History:
- My user profile was corrupted, got the message that a temporary user profile was created.
- Rather than going the route of going into the registry as suggested here, I deleted the account but kept the files (was this my mistake)?
- When I went to create a new account, it appended HOME.DESKTOP to the end of my name. And my old account with files was still there.
- So I deleted the new account.
- And I'm at the step where I am trying to delete the old account (I have a backup of the data elsewhere) entirely from the hard drive. But Windows won't let me.
- Upgraded from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit yesterday.

Any suggestions?

If you have it open in explorer it is open and may not be able to be deleted.

If it is in the left panel and not open try right clicking and delete.

If that doesnt work there are applications (3rd party) that will delete almost anything. The trials for these apps are usually free.

There's a lot of ways to approach this depending on your skill and comfort level.

You could use Process Explorer to find which program is holding your files open, forcibly close the open file handle(s), and delete the files as normal. This option is safe and relatively easy but can fail under certain circumstances.

The next option is to boot into safe mode and delete the files from there. This should work under almost all circumstances.

The nuclear option is to use a Windows install DVD to boot into System Recovery Options and delete the files from the command line. This will work no matter what but requires a bootable install DVD and knowledge of the Windows command line.

There is a tiny free program named "unlocker.exe" (downloadable from Download unlocker1.9.0.exe free - Unlocker). Try that. It shall delete any sticky files. In rare cases it might ask for a restart to delete the file at boot time.

Good luck.

elisabeth999 said:

From my husband's Admin account, I deleted my own User Account, but the account is still there (with a lock icon on it) and I am unable to delete it (gives me the message that the folder is open or in use by another program). I changed the owner to my husband (checked the box "Replace owner on subcontainers and objects") as suggested on this thread and I still can't delete it.

History:
- My user profile was corrupted, got the message that a temporary user profile was created.
- Rather than going the route of going into the registry as suggested here, I deleted the account but kept the files (was this my mistake)?
- When I went to create a new account, it appended HOME.DESKTOP to the end of my name. And my old account with files was still there.
- So I deleted the new account.
- And I'm at the step where I am trying to delete the old account (I have a backup of the data elsewhere) entirely from the hard drive. But Windows won't let me.
- Upgraded from Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit yesterday.

Any suggestions?

I ran across silimlair and booted the machine in safe mode to delete the old user account files. When re-booting some of the files returned. Turned out, THAT user (the one deleted) had a browser plugin installed, and so those files were re-made upon the non-safemode boot.

Check to be sure no third pary browser plugins or other software is installed, boot in safe mode and delete the offending files.

Best Wishes,
Rªnce

Thanks for your replies.
Shortly after posting this problem, I tried booting in Safe Mode in desperation. It took all of 2 seconds to get rid of the offending files. They did not return. Duly noted for "next time"!
Thanks!
--e.
:)