Unable to delete a file from Desktop in Win7

[Ginoy]

Hi,
Can anyone suggest a way to delete a file from Desktop! I'm not joking.. I unzipped a folder that had a file with a really long file name... I have no idea how it got there.. I'm unable to open/ move/ copy/ rename/ delete that file.. In short it is unrecognized by the Win 7 file system itself...!!! I can only see that file but cannot do anything else with it. Pls suggest a way to delete the file..

Thanks in advance.

 

[marsmimar]

Hello Ginoy and welcome to Seven Forums.

It may just be a ghost file. Right click on the desktop and click on Refresh to see if the file goes away. If not, then see if restarting the computer will get rid of it. If still unable to delete the file you could try a couple of free tools. One is called Unlocker and the other is called FileAssassin.

UNLOCKER 1.9.1 BY CEDRICK 'NITCH' COLLOMB

Malwarebytes : Remove any locked file with FileASSASSIN

If you still can't get rid of it it may be malware. Suggest you run a full updated scan with your installed anti-virus suite. No AV program is 100% effective 100% of the time (if there was such a thing we'd all be using it.) So I'd also run a couple of free on-demand scanners. The more scans you run that come back "no malware found" the more likely your computer is without malware.

Windows Defender Offline (must be created on a malware free computer)

Malwarebytes

ESET Online Scanner

SuperAntispyware

HitmanPro

Please post back if anything helped or not.

 

[Jacee]

If it's running in task manager (processes tab) stop it, then go into safe mode and delete it. Reboot and follow through with a thorough Anti-Virus/Anti-malware scan.

 

[Rivet]

Unlocker has always worked for me.

 

[Michael123a]

If it's running in task manager (processes tab) stop it, then go into safe mode and delete it. Reboot and follow through with a thorough Anti-Virus/Anti-malware scan.

This is my first step doing this. and you should also check that if the file you want to delete is still using or not? if this steps doesn't work, you can restart your computer and delete it. anyway,if it doesn't work, I am afraid you have to use some software.

 

[Ginoy]

Guys, thank you so much for ur replies.. but, this is not a ghost file (its still there even after i restarted several times). Its not a process and is not showing up in Task manager. I'm not allowed to install any other softwares as it is my company system. I have attached a screenshot of the file in Windows explorer along with the message dialog that appeared when i double clicked it..!!

 

[marsmimar]

If the computer is a company machine, do you have an IT Department? Perhaps they installed some kind of software that can't be accessed or removed..

 

[Ginoy]

No.. This is not something that they have installed. As i mentioned in my first post, I created this file in desktop by unzipping a 7zip archive file which i had created earlier.

In the meantime, I will also check witht he IT dept.

Thanks for replying marsmimar

 

[marsmimar]

Ahh ... sorry. I didn't realize you created the zip file. I read the part about "...no idea how it got there..." in your first post and thought you had no idea how the zip file got there.

 

[gladson1976]

Try deleting it from the command prompt using the short file name.

Go to the command prompt, navigate to Desktop and type "Dir /X" (without the quotes).
Windows will list the files in the desktop (File Date/Time, Size, Short file name, Long file name)
Type "DEL <short file name for the file you want to delete>" without the quotes) and ENTER