Can't delete files because they are open in COM Surrogate

Question

So I've just started having a problem where sometimes deleting files and folders will result in this dialog appearing, or "the folder cannot be deleted because it is open in another program." Why is this happening?

I hope I don't have a virus looking through my stuff or something.

Answer 1

You should be able to kill the "COM Surrogate" task in Task Manager.

That worked. Thank you!

Answer 2

This has been an underlying issue for a long time. This has happened to me often when it comes to photos, trash bin and folders.

Why does it happen to begin with? It's very annoying. Is there a long term fix?

Task Manager is just a solution, not a cure, after all.

Answer 3

Same issue for me. An annoying error in Windows which has been there for a while. Only work around so far is to kill Com Surrogate in Task Manager.

Answer 4

I was doing backups in Windows 11 checking out which pictures to delete and which to keep. Every so often it won't allow me to delete a picture or folder because of this Com Surrogate hijacking the files. It happened a dozen times just today that I noticed this is not a one time problem but a systemic bug in the operating system. I also see this problem has been reported back in 2020 and still hasn't been fixed.

Answer 5

Bonjour MF’n Quetzalcoatlus

Merci pour le conseil:

"simplement ouvrir le fichier qui ne voulait pas être supprimé. Faites quelques modifications simples. Enregistrez le fichier (pas enregistrer sous) et fermez le programme... Ensuite, j’ai ouvert l’emplacement du fichier et il a été supprimé comme prévu."

Tout OK, fichier supprimé !

Slts.