Go to the "open with" menu and change it to "anything else" then try to delete. Worked for me.
Cannot Delete Files (Win 11) - No Error, Just Hangs
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Kal Kent
0
Reputation points
Ok, I'm stumped and need help. Wall of text incoming.
No viruses, I'm sure its going to be asked, but I am 100% positive of both where I got the apps from, and all of the files involved.
I have three folders full of files in my Documents folder that I cannot delete on my laptop. They are folders created by apps installed by me - apps purchased and downloaded from CLZ.com. These are database software apps.
I then copied backups I had on my external hard drive made from my PC's install of these apps. The reason for this is the PC was my "primary" system used to maintain my app databases. I now want to use my laptop as my primary.
The backup files transferred consisted of proprietary database files and images, among other settings and random stuff.
The thing was this - the files wouldn't completely transfer from my hard drive. I'd get about 10% done and it would just stop. No error, nothing, just stop. So I made a fresh backup from the PC to transfer on a USB drive. Uninstalled the apps on the laptop to do everything fresh, and when I went to delete what few files I had transferred that were left after the uninstall... I couldn't.
Nothing happens. Delete just sits, no error message, nothing. Looks like it's gonna work but never does. So I tried everything I could. I used CMD as an administrator, and it just hangs. I tried copying over the files with the "good" backup; it fails. I even tried a file shredding app, which sits and does nothing but "prepare" to run. And yes, for good measure, I've virus tested the files, but on neither the PC nor the laptop do I get any hits or any reason to suspect anything untoward at all. The files I can't delete hang at 0% if I try to test them.
How do I delete these files?
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage
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Kal Kent 0 Reputation points
2025-07-04T19:50:07.76+00:00 Accidental comment, ignore, I didn't realize I could edit the original post.
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Eric Biggio 0 Reputation points2026-05-03T16:02:52.51+00:00 Had the same problem and figured the program that I had set to "open" the file type (ISO) was the culprit. I uninstalled it and the files had no problem deleting after I did it.
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LemP 74,930 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator2025-07-08T00:31:14.5633333+00:00 In Windows, there usually are many ways to accomplish things. If you can't determine what process has a file open, try booting into the Windows Recovery Environment. There shouldn't be any odd processes running at that point.
Click Start, press and hold a Shift key, and click Restart.
Keep the Shift key depressed until you see the blue "Choose an option" screen.
Click the button for "Troubleshoot" to get the "Advanced Options" screen, then click the "Command Prompt" button.
You'll notice that the prompt in the Command Prompt window will be:
X:\Windows\System32The actual system disk will probably still be C: but to make sure, type
Diskpartand press Enter
At the DISKPART>prompt, type
list volBy inspection, confirm the drive letter of your system drive and then type
exitto leave Diskpart.
Type the drive letter of your system drive (e.g. C:) and press Enter
Use the Change Directory command to change to the directory in which the problem directory is located and try the rmdir command again. For example, if the problem directory CLZfolder is located in your Documents directory and your user account is kalkent --
cd users/kalkent/documents rmdir /s CLZ folder -
MotoX80 37,676 Reputation points2025-07-05T00:44:11.33+00:00 There isn't a process using them.
Download handle.zip and open it.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/handle
Copy handle.exe and handle64.exe to your favorite utilities folder.
Open a command prompt with "run as administrator".
"cd' to your favorite utilities folder.
Run handle followed by part of the file or folder name.
That will tell you what process has it open.
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Kal Kent 0 Reputation points
2025-07-05T04:43:10.46+00:00 OK, so I had never heard of this. Neat.
But I'm not sure what it told me exactly. I ran "handle64.exe comic" and got nothing. Same with "handle64.exe game." But "handle64.exe movie" comes up with two of the CLZ files in the folder in use by Explorer.exe?
This makes no sense as "rmdir /s" said basically every file (including hundreds of just image files) were in use from these folders.
Am I further ahead just doing a fresh Windows install?
I'm no genius, but I've never encountered anything like this before.
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MotoX80 37,676 Reputation points
2025-07-05T12:19:24.7866667+00:00 Lets pick one file and try to delete it. It would really help if you could use the snipping tool to share an image of the command prompt so that we can see what you are seeing. Press and hold the Windows key, the shift key, and the letter S. That will launch snip. Then select the window. In the snip tool, Ctrl+A, Ctrl-C to copy and then paste the image here.
Like this.
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LemP 74,930 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2025-07-04T23:17:07.1533333+00:00 You didn't mention what command you used in the Command Prompt, so try this (replace CLZfolder with the appropriate folder name):
rmdir /s CLZfolder
If that doesn't work, see the Remarks here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/rmdir
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Kal Kent 0 Reputation points
2025-07-04T23:31:50.1333333+00:00 Hi, I'm sorry, I tried to be as informative as possible and did overlook that bit of information. I tried your advice and get "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process," for file after file after file. There isn't a process using them. Any process that would has been uninstalled and I've restarted at least a dozen times since then.
I read the remarks but maybe didn't pick up on what specifically you wanted me to gather? Just that this command won't work if a file is in use?
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