Server 2008 fix The action can’t be completed because the file is open by the system

We sometimes come across an error that you can not delete the file. The action cannot be completed because of the file open by the system.

When multiple peoples are logged in on the server they may have open the file or sometimes those files are supporting other files or programs for some operations.

And when we check in task manager we may not able to find those files opened and gets hard time to delete them.

To delete these type of files we need to restart the computer but in case of a server, we cannot restart the server. So follow these following steps to delete those files.

Click on start menu and then go to server manager. On Server manager, Click on Computer management. It will show up all of the server related information. Now click the + icon in Shared Folders, It will list three more folders under Shared Folders, Click on Open Files folder.

It will show all of the files being open by a system or any other users logged on the server or have been disconnected from the server login session but the files are open.

Search for the file in the list you wanted to delete but unable to delete the file. In this case, it is a thumb.db. In the list, right click on the row where the file we want to delete is listed. It will open up a menu and gives you the option to delete the file. Click on Close Open File.

Now go to the original location where the file was placed and you want to delete it. Right-click on the file and click on delete. The file will get deleted.

By following these steps, you can easily delete any file which is giving the same error in the server environment.