i downloaded a patch for my red alert game....so it can play on windows xp, but the patch.exe and this other .exe that came with it wont delete.

it says 'close any programs that might be using the file and try again'
                ive opened task manager and ended all the processes run by the owner that i dont recognise but i stil cant delete them. can anyone help me?

is there a way to force delete things?

thanks. soz for the noob question

Have you tried restarting the computer
Then deleting the files straight after it boots.
Because this will end any processes that actially are using the exe, and as long as those process dont start on boot you can delete the files

yea tried that, but just tried it again to be sure cause loaded msn.......have ya got any other suggestions? thanks.

Try deleting them in safemode, but be sure that the red alert game doesn't use any of these exe files (if it still uses em it'll stop working).

i dont have the game installed no more

hmmm, safe mode, hmm gd idea!

In that case deleting em in safemode should work.

i cant get into safe mode. wen i load up it sez f2 for setup - not there and f12 for err sumat else but it wernt dere either help please

Delete them through the dos promt.

When starting computer keep hiting F8 untill the Windows start options come up.

Select start windows with command promt.

Now navigate to the folder the file is in and use the del command to delete the file.

example:

C:\Windows\Desktop\del thefile.txt


This will work.

THANKS DJeX! only thing was had to type 'del c:\windows......'

ahh what was the full thing you typed in?

was it something like C:\Windows\thefilename.extention   ?

yea 'del c:\downloads\patch.exe'

I think u couldn't delete the files cause they were starting with windows. If so u could have opended a startup editor like the one system mechanic has and could hava removed its entries. Then after rebooting u could have deleted it.
There is a startup manager provided by winxp as well. U need to type something in the run program but can't remember. Newayz problem solved. Congrats 

is it the thing where u type 'msconfig' in the run window, and goto the startup tab?

Yah thats the one i couldn't remember. Thanks

quote:

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Originally posted by may73alliance
s it the thing where u type 'msconfig' in the run window, and goto the startup tab?

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