Unable to Delete AVI Files in Windows XP?

One of the video bugs in Windows XP is that you may not be able to delete or move a video avi file. Attempting to do so may result in an error message stating that the file is in use by another program and cannot be deleted. This usually happens with flawed or large avi files. The problem is that Windows XP reads the entire contents of the file into memory before even allowing you access to it (i.e. - when you click to highlight the file or right click to view the Properties).  The bug responsible for this behavior is the file shmedia.dll which is in your System folder and called into play by the registry. Thus to fix this problem, all we need to do is delete the problem key so that shmedia.dll will no longer be used when you click a video file.

Click Start>Run, type REGEDIT and click Ok. Then make your way to this InProcServer32 key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >SOFTWARE >Classes > CLSID > {87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}> InProcServer32

Right click the InProcServer32 key and choose Delete. And that's all there is to it. This will prevent Windows from loading shmedia.dll when you work with video files and thus you should no longer have problems deleting or moving any video files. Also if you have a video file you can't delete now, deleting this key will allow you to do so. If not, log out and log in again to delete the file.

If deleting the registry key makes you uncomfortable, you can export and save the reg key first. Alternately, you can rename the key by preceding the name with something like zzzz or 123.

Another method for deleting problem files (not just avi files) is by closing explorer and using the command line to delete the file. Here I'll give you a method that doesn't require you to enter any paths.

• Find cmd.exe (it's in your Windows\System32 folder) and COPY it to the folder that contains your problem file.
• Double click the copied cmd.exe and leave the dos window open.
• Then click Ctrl-Alt-Del and choose Task Manager>Processes tab. Select Explorer and click End Process.
• Once ended, enter your delete command in the open dos box:
  del mymovie.avi (where "mymovie" is the name of your avi file)
• Press Enter.
• Then press Ctrl Alt Del again to get to the Task Manager>Processes tab.
• Click File>New Task.
• Enter EXPLORER.EXE and click Ok to get Windows back to normal.

The file should now be gone.