"Cannot delete folder" deleted

Having done a bit of file re-org on my laptop I found myself stuck with a folder which, though empty, could not be deleted. Windows kept saying “Cannot delete folder” apparently “another person” was using it.

After re-booting my machine the problem persisted, which is not a good sign as a reboot will normally kill off any process that holds the file lock. A quick search on Download.com turned up ‘Unlocker‘, a great little freeware app that fixed the problem straight away. Good job! Now all I need is something to unlock that nagging feeling of why can’t Microsoft just get this crap sorted out themselves?

Aside: A common cause of this for me has been flickr’s Uploadr app, but in this case it wasn’t – and normally a reboot fixes the Uploadr lock.