Cannot remove file, used by a program

[Mattias]

Hi!

When i run a virus scan and find a virus, sometimes it can't be removed because a program or process is using the infected file. How do I find out what process is using it so I can kill it and remove the file? I noticed that the is a box that you can check for the program(Avast) to remove the file on system startup but I want to remove it ASAP.

Best Regards
Mattias

[igor]

Well, you may try things like Process Explorer from SysInternals, but in general, it may not be possible to remove it without restart. The file may be a DLL loaded into all the processes... so you would have to kill all the processes, which you simply can't do.