Unlock locked files

Have you bump into a problem when trying to do some house keeping on your PC/laptop harddisk, but there is a warning message said that there is a process is using the file, or the file is locked because blah blah blah? For advanced users, you might able to figure it out how to fix this. But how about the rest of 90% of us?

Fear not, LockHunter can help us.

pix credit: http://lockhunter.com/

LockHunter has to be install, not suitable to be portable because it need to integrate with the system. There should be a way to do this with portable version, but that is beyond the scope for this post.

When you want to move or delete a file and the system flag an error, then just right-click on the file and click on "What is locking this file?". LockHunter will then report the problem.

There are a few options with the locked file:

1. Unlock the file only
2. Close the Locking Processes (a.k.a kill) that locked the file
3. Delete the Locking Processes

By default, LockHunter will delete any file into recycle bins, therefore it is much safer so that you can retrieve it from recycle bins in case you mistakenly deleted a file/apps/exe.

Supports Windows only (Win2k to Win7), available for 32 and 64 bits. Still in beta stage, so it might be buggy. And it is free!

To download this useful apps, go to here:
http://lockhunter.com/


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source: wild wild web!

BleachBit: the real HDD cleaning agent

I am happy with the lightning speed of SSD however suffer at the same time with the tiny space on SSD. SSD is still super expensive compare to the conventional (magnetic) harddisk. I have the quick check on Amazon just now and found out Cricial 128GB SSD (US$146.34) is much more expensive than Seagate 750GB (US$105.65), with both are 2.5 inch.

Due to the tiny diskspace on SSD, I have always watch out the stuffs I store on this SSD, and disk cleaning is become household chores (hate it but have to do it!). However "Disk Cleanup" which come with all Windows is one heck of useless software. It can clean up some of the junk, but most of the junk still remain as it is, hiding somewhere in the harddisk.

Today I bump into BleachBit, this guy really do what it is called, bleach!



Not only Windows OS's junks, it can also clean up junks from:

• Adobe Reader
• FireFox
• Google Chrome
• IE
• Java
• MS Office
• Paint
• Silverlight
• VLC media player
• Windows explorer
• Winzip
• Wordpad
• etc, whichever it can find in your HD. (The author claimed that the list is 780+ apps for Windows)

It can also shred files, directory and free space. Shred free space is a really important things to do before sending your computer to repair shop. Because delete file and flush it in recycle bins does not really get rid of it. I have posted methods to retrieved deleted files:
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2010/04/pclaptop-life-saver-series-file.html
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2010/04/pclaptop-life-saver-series-file_05.html
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2010/04/pclaptop-life-saver-series-file_06.html
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2012/01/recuva-another-file-recovery-freeware.html

BleachBit is available for Linux and Windows.And it is portable, in 56 languages.
Best of all, it is free!


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source: bump to this in wild wild web.

Get To Know Your Computer Better

No, it is not a date. You will not go out to movie and restaurant or jogging or hiking with your computer to know your computer better.

All you need is Speccy free version.

What went well?
1. While CPUz only give you the hardware information, Speccy give you even more detail of the hardware
2. While "System Information" on Windows give you the geeky information, Speccy can give you even more. (I really don't give the damn about Conflicts or DMA or IRQs information anyway)
3. It is free.
4. Portable version available from the official website (Portable version from unknown source could be dangerous!)
5. Made by the same company that created CCleaner.
6. Save the result into XML or text file.

I downloaded the portable version (link at end of post) and give it a try. It take a while to grab all the data, probably 1/2 minutes or more.


The summary is quite simple, just showing the type of OS, CPU, RAM, Motherboards, etc. The CPU temperature is being update on the fly.


Click on the items on left column or the blue color link on right column will give you more detail, I mean the really in-depth details.

One thing that catch my attention, is the Uptime and Downtime. The longest Uptime I ever have on my laptop is more than 20days, meaning I never ever reboot the laptop for more than 20 days! That is what I like about Sandy Bridge with Windows 7, I don't need to reboot so often compare to older version of Windows. All I need to do is either put it to sleep or hibernate mode.


Of course you can buy the Home or Business edition, which will cost US$19.95 and US$34.95, but I don't think it is necessary for normal usage since the information from free version is way too much already.

Download installation version:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/standard

Download portable version:
http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download/portable


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source: I wrote this!