On many occasion we try to rename or delete a specific file or folder in Windows and we were greeted with an error that you cant complete this action as file or folder is in use or it is open in/by some other program and we have to close that program first, you will get an option to try again but it wont help in most of the cases and searching and closing program manually is not an easy task.
You can use some freeware apps like Unlocker which lets you kill the program and perform your action, today we have another freeware app called File Governor, it gives almost similar functionality of Unlocker but it do offer some stuffs which were not available in Uncloker. File Governor comes in both 32 Bit and 64 Bit and also comes in portable version so that you can run it from USB stick.
You can launch this app and then drag and drop files or folder on it or browse for files or folder which you want to delete or rename, File Governor will instantly scan that file and show all processes which are linked with that file.
Each file is shown with its ID, Process name, Locked Object process path, type and handle. At bottom you will find three options by which you can either Kill Process(es) or you can Unlock file which gives full access of files and folder to you so that you can perform you actions.
If you want more options than you can right click on any file you will get options such as Lookup on VirusTotal, Search file on Google, you can open local folder or find files properties. If you want to use this app frequently then you can try to add it to your Windows context menu through settings.
Features of File Governor :-
- Unblock files and folders locked by other applications
- Terminate processes that lock a file or folder
- Scan files and folders for locked objects
- Close opened handles and unload loaded DLL modules
- Unload DLL modules loaded in running processes
- Unlock all locked objects with a single mouse click
- Scan files and folders through the Windows explorer context menu
- Safely delete a locked file on the next reboot
- A valid and powerful alternative to the popular Unlocker
- Run it from the USB flash drive with the portable version
- The application can be translated into multiple languages
- Supports all Microsoft Windows operating systems
- Very lightweight in the memory and CPU usage
Final Verdict on File Governor :-
It’s a nice freeware which comes with some handy features and tools, but if you are already using Unlocker then you might not want to move to this tool unless you want something extra which Unlocker cant provide. At last we would like to say about File Governor that it take advantage over Unlocker in the field of updates, Unlocker is very rarely updated while this one gets regular updates.
