Tools for testing your Internet speed

R.I.P. L. Nimoy, the human heart of Mr. Spock

What better way to wonder at the strangeness of humanity than along with Spock, the puzzled logician of Star Trek? The actor who embodied the literal-minded science officer of Star Trek’s Enterprise captured millions of simultaneously amused and respectful fans; this week’s video will perhaps remind you why. But it also might be worth remembering that the long-lived (and prosperous) actor also said, “Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.” Click below or go to the original YouTube video.

Linux inspires readers to share their thoughts

Following publication of the Feb. 19 Top Story about Linux, we received numerous unequivocal opinions from Windows Secrets readers about both the operating system and our coverage of a non-Windows OS.

More letters welcomed our Linux coverage than not, although one or two of the latter are too profane to print. Still, you can see an assortment of reader responses below. For more conversation about Linux and the Top Story, visit the related Windows Secrets Lounge thread.

Glad/not glad to see an article on Linux

• Just a quick note to let you know how extremely well written was David Robinson’s Feb. 19 Top Story, “An introduction to Linux for Windows users.” It was concise, accurate, and covered almost all the salient points about Linux’s history and development. The screenshots were also a nice touch.

  Bravo! Best regards.    — Jonathon English

• This is a Windows newsletter in case someone forgot to tell you. We do not need more dribble here about Linux. Do a primer on the latest Windows Server. We know Linux and a gazillion other UNIX-like derivatives exist. And probably most of us have used one or more of those badly written excuses for an OS in the past.

  Why do you think we pay for this newsletter? Certainly not to read about Linux.     — Robert Sosenko

• I saw a place I could test Linux with Windows without installing it. I have a CD for Linux 14.04, but I’m reluctant to install it; I’d much rather test it first. But I’m getting fed up with Windows’ constant problems and easy hacking. All hackers know Windows, so it’s easy for them to get into it.     — Robert Aldridge
• I love that you are now covering Linux!

  Please let your readers know that there are free online courses offered by the Linux Foundation. I am currently taking them. Here’s the link to Linux Foundation training.     — Susan Brennan

Because of what could be new at Microsoft

• Personally, if Microsoft can’t give me the exact version of Windows 10 that I already have with Windows 8.1 Pro with Windows Media Center, I won’t be upgrading to it. Microsoft will be losing a customer, as I won’t be renewing my Office 365 Personal or Xbox Live subscriptions, either.

  Instead, I’ll be ditching everything Microsoft and moving to a Linux distro.     — Keith Brooks

Swarms of locusts: Junkware on the Internet

When Lounge member beiland had some work done on his computer, the shop installed IObit Uninstaller.

Inevitably, beiland brought some unwelcome tracking software onto his system, giving him occasion to test his new uninstaller.

He thought IObit worked well, but to stay on the safe side, he checked in with fellow Lounge members in the Maintenance forum. They had a range of experiences to relate. Ironists will appreciate that even uninstallers sometimes bring baggage with them.

The following links are this week’s most interesting Lounge threads, including several new questions for which you might have answers:

Office Applications
General Productivity	What is Microsoft Office Single Image?
Word Processing	How to convert multiple Word 2010 docs to PDF?
Spreadsheets	Read data into Excel from text file?
Databases	Understanding Form_BeforeUpdate
Visual Basic for Apps	Export from Excel to Notepad
Microsoft Outlook	How to share Outlook calendar with Android smartphone?
Non-Outlook E-mail	Need help changing email application
Other MS Apps	Loss of cut, copy, and paste functions in OneNote 2007
Windows
General Windows	Adobe Flash Player won’t install
Windows 10	Will Windows 10 have an email client?
Windows 8	Win 8.1 on two machines; how to separate them?
Windows 7	Acer laptop crashed after reinstall
Windows Vista	Vista recovery errors
Windows XP	Shutdown question
Windows Servers	Moving a live DHCP server
Internet/Connectivity
Internet Explorer	Financial sites not opening in IE 9
Third-Party Browsers	Trying to set homepage on Firefox 35.0.1
Networking	Connectivity issues, perhaps?
Software Development
Web Design & Development	Recommendations for website building?
Other Technologies
Security & Scams	RegServo: Is it malware?
Maintenance	Opinions of IObit Uninstaller?
Hardware	HD-detection problem
Other Applications	Adobe Flash Player failure

starred posts: particularly useful

If you’re not already a Lounge member, use the quick registration form to sign up for free. The ability to post comments and take advantage of other Lounge features is available only to registered members.

If you’re already registered, you can jump right into today’s discussions in the Lounge.

Tools for testing your Internet speed

There are many reasons an Internet connection will become noticeably slower — including not getting the bandwidth you’re paying for.

Internet speed-testing services might help reveal whether your ISP is at fault, but only if you understand how they work.

When streaming House of Cards, do you find that Frank Underwood can’t make a threat without stuttering? Does uploading a new video to YouTube seem to take forever? Are you really starting to wonder whether you’re getting the faster Internet service that’s costing an extra $50 a month?

There’s probably good reason to wonder. Recent reports show that some Internet service providers (ISPs) deliver slower connection speeds than they claim — up to 41 percent, according to an April 21, 2014, WSJ Digits blog post.

The good news is that there’s a bunch of free broadband speed tests available online. The bad news is that the speed numbers from those tests tend to jump around like a kangaroo on amphetamines. So to start, here are the two most important tips to keep in mind when running any Internet-performance test:

1. Never rely on a single set of readings from a single speed test (more on why below).

2. Local wireless connections have lots of potential potholes that can affect download/upload performance. So run the tests on a computer that’s connected to your network — and the Internet — with an Ethernet cable.

What Internet-performance tests measure

Nearly all Internet-speed tests measure three things: download and upload transfer rates plus latency. The tests are surprisingly simple; download/upload speeds are based on the time required to transfer a single file — or multiple files of various sizes — between your PC and an online server.

The latency (aka ping) test measures the time it takes for a single packet of data to reach an online server and then return to your computer. Latency is typically important to anyone running extremely time-sensitive applications across the Internet — financial trading and interactive games are common examples.

In most cases, you’ll notice that upload speeds are far lower than download speeds. That’s because ISPs, facing limited bandwidth, long ago chose protocols that prioritize downloads over uploads.

That made a lot of sense in the early days of the Internet, when users typically downloaded more data than they uploaded. And that’s still true, though possibly to a lesser degree. We now download gigabytes of streamed music and movies; but we’re also video chatting, calling via voice-over-IP, and backing up our files to cloud-storage services.

In the future, ISPs might have to revisit download/upload bandwidth allocation. But for now, downloading will remain significantly faster than uploading.

Measuring Comcast with eight testing services

Using Internet-connection speed-testing services is generally easy. For example, on the Bandwidth Place site, simply click the big Start button (see Figure 1). Many services also let you pick the Web-based server used for the tests.

Figure 1. As with most Internet speed-testing sites, running the Bandwidth Place test is just point-and-click.

Keep in mind that, for a variety of reasons, the connection-speed results produced by testing services can differ significantly. I’ll discuss why in a moment. First, here are some results from eight popular connection-speed testing services.

I use Comcast for my Internet service — surprisingly, my Seattle neighborhood has few choices. The expected service levels for my subscription are 50 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 5mbps for uploads. The speed figures below represent testing done at midday. Some tests returned significant speed variations, depending on the time of day.

In all but two tests, Comcast met its promised service levels, though the differences between tests were significant. The overall results are:

To summarize, reported download speeds ranged from 16.8Mpbs to 65Mbps, a variance of over 48Mbps or about 75 percent. Ping speeds ranged from eight milliseconds to 106ms, a far greater variance. Even if we throw out the Geek Squad tester’s results as an outlier, download speed measurements from the other testers varied by as much 25 percent.

Is one test more accurate than another?

For many reasons, it’s impossible to accurately measure overall Internet-connection speeds — or even to say whether one Internet testing service is more or less accurate than its competitors.

To start, the Internet is a far-from-homogenous infrastructure; it’s a mashup of different routers, servers, cable types, and so on. Typically, each browser-to-webserver connection uses different routes over the Net and passes through various devices that manage Web traffic — all of which impacts connection speeds.

Moreover, Internet users might use different browsers or FTP apps at different times. Some browsers might have accelerators that employ multiple HTTP threads for transfers; others might not. In short, there’s no consistency with Internet connections.

There’s also no consistency with testing services. As noted above, services use the same three types of tests — download, upload, ping — but the tests themselves can be quite different. Some services use a single file for uploads and downloads, while others use multiple files of different sizes. Even the format of test files can impact transfer speeds, depending on the protocols used, the size of packets, and the amount of overhead they contain.

Some services transfer files in a single thread; others use multiple threads. For the most part, it’s unknown whether a speed test that employs a single-threaded transfer — as most of them do — is more, or less, accurate than a speed test that employs a multi-threaded transfer.

And while some tests always use a single online server, others search for the fastest available server or allow the user to select a server.

Internet performance will vary greatly based on the location of servers used for testing. Typically, the farther they are from your location, the lower your speed numbers — especially latency. As noted above, many speed tests scan servers in several locations and select the one that’s closest. Some speed tests — SpeedOf.me (Figure 2), for example — run data through several servers in different locations during a test.

Figure 2. SpeedOf.Me's graphical connection-speed chart

Latency can also have an impact on throughput, because most Internet traffic is bound by a TCP “congestion window.” Essentially, the system waits for confirmation that packets were received before sending more. The longer the latency, the slower the transfer.

The time of day can also result in wildly different speed results. A business might see lower speeds during the day, when numerous users share a single Internet connection. Home users will typically see slower speeds in the evening, when you and your neighbors are downloading YouTube videos and streaming movies.

Bear in mind, too, that test results can vary significantly depending on numbers of other users simultaneously using a local ISP node. For consumers, that might be everyone in an apartment building — or it might be the number of employees sharing a single, leased business connection. If you notice performance dropping after 3 p.m., it might be because all the students in your neighborhood are returning home and jumping on the Internet.

Most speed-measuring services download a small app for running the tests. Some use Java, others use Flash. A few of the newer services use HTML5, which requires that no software be installed on your computer. In theory, HTML5 tests are more accurate because there’s no overhead imposed by the downloaded, local software. But Ookla (Figure 3) claims that its Flash-based tester adjusts for protocol overhead and application buffering before reporting results.

Figure 3. Ookla has a relatively simple interface for displaying upload/download speeds and ping time.

Bottom line: No matter what assumptions an Internet-testing service makes, it can’t build a test that fits nicely into the real world. There’s no practical way to account for each user’s PC configuration and Internet use — especially when our Internet connections will vary from place to place, session to session, website to website.

What to do if your speed is slower than you expect?

Given the limitations of Internet-speed tests, how do you determine whether you’re getting the performance you’re paying for?

The tests can give a rough approximation of Internet-connection speeds — but only if we run multiple tests at various times of the day and week. If possible, run the test from different computers to see whether you get consistent results. That can help eliminate local machine and networking issues.

And again, make sure to use an Ethernet cable between the PC and your router/modem. Various types of wireless-network interference can significantly reduce Internet-connection speeds.

Run the tests from several different services and throw out the highest and lowest results. If the majority of tests consistently show lower-than-expected performance, it’s probably time to contact your ISP.

DISM: Windows' advanced image-creation tool

The Windows dism.exe tool offers over 100 advanced functions for maintaining system files. Here’s what you should know about it.

Plus: Win8’s ‘Universal’ .pdf reader causes trouble; a free, reader-recommended application updater; and a warning to Lenovo owners about Superfish.

Help for using the complex and powerful dism.exe

Reader Kees van der Pot is enthusiastic about a little-known Windows tool.

• “As a lifetime subscriber and long-time reader of your weekly column, I’d like to make a contribution.

  “My laptop suffered with problems which I could not solve with sfc /scannow. Searching through your articles about nondestructive repairs, I found an item about Microsoft’s dism.exe tool.

  “The command dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth was the perfect solution for all my problems!

  “I wonder why this tool is mentioned in only two articles: Susan Bradley’s ‘Patching Windows — the Windows 8.1 Update edition’ and Fred Langa’s ‘Shrink that gigantic WinSxS folder down to size.’

  “Can you explain this wonderful power tool in more detail?”

Sure! The Windows’ Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool is found in Windows 7 and 8. Its primary function is to help IT departments and original equipment manufacturers create, manage, and install (or deploy) uniform, standardized system images on many identical Windows PCs.

But DISM can also be useful if you’re managing just a few PCs — or even one.

That’s because DISM can also be used as a more general tool for maintaining Windows’ system files and drivers.

You can see a few of DISM’s wide-ranging abilities in the two Windows Secrets articles cited above. The April 24, 2014, Patch Watch column shows how to use DISM to roll back and recover from a bad Windows upgrade. The April 4, 2012, LangaList Plus article shows how to use DISM to clean out tons of no-longer-needed Windows Update files.

Here’s a third example: DISM is at the heart of Win8’s custom-recovery image process (see the Oct. 10, 2013, Top Story).

Indirectly, DISM also powers Win8’s two recovery options, Refresh (Aug. 15, 2013, Top Story) and Reset (Sept. 12, 2013, Top Story). You don’t actually see DISM — it’s working behind the scenes.

The dism.exe application is a beast. It’s an expert-level, command-line tool that offers over 100 functions and subfunctions (or arguments) for installing, managing, and maintaining system images, files, and drivers. DISM comes in separate Windows 7 and Windows 8 versions, and though they perform similar functions, they use slightly different — and incompatible — command sets, each 100+ deep.

DISM is definitely not for beginners. But for advanced users, it’s worth taking some time to scan through its capabilities and possibly try out a few of its especially useful or interesting features and functions.

Here are the best Microsoft resources I can find on DISM. Because the two versions are somewhat different, I’ve put the references into separate Win8 and Win7 lists.

Windows 8:

• “What is DISM?“
• “Where to find DISM?“
• “Windows deployment with the Windows ADK“
• “DISM Image Management command-line options“
• “Repair a Windows image” (covers the /RestoreHealth argument)
• “Prepare and service Windows images using the new DISM tool“

Windows 7:

• “What is Deployment Image Servicing and Management?”
• “How Deployment Image Servicing and Management works“
• “Deployment Image Servicing and Management technical reference“
• “Managing Windows 7 with DISM“
• “Error 87 running ‘DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth‘ on Windows 7” (offers additional information on the /RestoreHealth argument)

Combined Windows 7 and 8:

• “Fix Windows corruption errors by using the DISM or System Update Readiness tool“

Note: Although dism.exe is a command-line tool, a CodePlex page offers the unofficial, free, open-source, graphics-based DISM GUI.

Win8’s ‘Universal’ PDF reader causes trouble

Charles Dial is having trouble controlling one of Windows 8’s Universal apps. (“Universal” is Microsoft’s new name for what we used to call native “Metro” or “Modern” apps.)

His problem is with Reader, Win8’s lightweight, PDF/XPS viewer. But the answer applies generally to any Universal apps.

• “This morning I was hit with a PDF-reader ‘update’ from Microsoft that eliminated my preferred app — Foxit Reader — and installed glcnd.exe as the default reader. The new app doesn’t appear in the Programs and Features list, making damn sure it can’t be removed via Windows’ standard uninstaller tool.

  “When running, glcnd.exe calls itself ‘Reader’; it fills the screen, wiping out all access to any window controls that will close it. Moreover, it completely blocks access to all other open windows: it’s immune to ^ + C, ^ + Z, ESC, or any other normal keyboard or mouse commands. WinKey + D gets me back to the desktop, but I still can’t kill Reader.

  “I can use Task Manager to cancel glcnd.exe, but Reader immediately resurrects itself when I open a PDF. Even worse, the app displays a fuzzy image of the rendered document.

  “This is the most obnoxious and intrusive piece of crapware I’ve seen in the last 30 years! I had to reinstall Foxit Reader and then once again set it as the default reader. That killed Reader, but I know it’s still lurking in there.”

It’s not that bad, Charles — honest! Universal apps can be controlled and uninstalled. It’s just that the methods are different from what you’re used to in Win7 and previous Windows versions.

For example, to close or minimize a full-screen, Universal app such as Reader in Win8.1, you just mouse or swipe to the top edge of the window. A conventional menu bar should drop down. You can then click the “minimize” or “close” controls in the normal manner (see Figure 1).

Note: These Universal menu bars were added in Win8.1 — you won’t find them in the original Windows 8. If you’re still running Win8.0, I strongly recommend upgrading. Version 8.1 has numerous important improvements. The upgrade is free via the Windows Store or by installing KB 2919355.

Figure 1. With Win8.1, Microsoft added the ability to close full-screen Universal apps via a drop-down menu bar.

From a full-screen Universal app, you can switch to other active windows or to the Desktop with the standard Alt + Tab key combo — just as you did in Vista and Win7.

Universal apps (including Reader) can be easily uninstalled — not through the Control Panel’s Programs and Features tool, but via the Settings menu. (As you’ll see, the process is not exactly intuitive.)

Open the charms bar and click Settings/Change PC Settings/Search and apps/App sizes. Select the app you want to uninstall — e.g., Reader — and click Uninstall (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Reader and other Universal apps are uninstalled in Win8.1's Settings menus, not via Control Panel.

I always reboot after any software uninstall to ensure that any leftover in-use/in-memory components are fully cleared out. I follow up with a Registry cleaner to ensure there are no stray Registry settings. But this is a personal preference; it’s not a requirement.

If a normal uninstall doesn’t work for some reason, you can manually delete the app’s executable file. In Reader’s case, it’s usually at:

C:\Program Files\windowsapps\microsoft.reader{some string of numbers}\glcnd.exe

If you can’t delete the file because it’s in use, open Task Manager’s Processes or Details tab, find the app, right-click it, and click End task (see Figures 3 and 4) — then go back and uninstall the app.

Note: The Processes tab lists most apps by their “friendly,” descriptive name (e.g., Reader); the Details tab mostly uses the apps’ actual file name (e.g., glcnd.exe).

Figure 3. When an app can't be uninstalled because it's still active, find its name in the Processes view and use the End task option to kill it.

Figure 4. Alternatively, use Task Manager's Details tab to locate the app by its file name and then select End task.

After ending the task, uninstall the app and reboot.

With Reader gone, you should then be able to permanently install the alternate PDF tool of your choice — and keep it set as your default app.

If you ever want to reinstall Reader or some other Universal app, you can simply download a new copy from the Win8 Store.

A free, reader-recommended application updater

After reading “App updater Secunia PSI not working properly” in the Feb. 12 LangaList Plus column, Steve Marston sent in this suggestion:

• “Hi Fred! What about ‘Patch My PC?'”

Patch My PC is a small, freeware/donationware updater tool (site) that tracks version numbers for apps. The site claims that it has a catalog of over 100 programs. When you launch Patch My PC, it scans your system to identify and update any apps it finds that are not current.

Based on my limited testing, it appears to work fine. But like most general-purpose updaters — including CNET’s Download App (free; site) and FileHippo App Manager (free; site) — Patch My PC also appears to follow the higher-version-numbers-are-always-better philosophy. In my experience, that’s not always the case.

Sometimes, a new version might correct problems that have nothing to do with your setup; or it might add features you don’t care about and will never use. Occasionally, new versions are just a way to show you ads by pulling you back to the publisher’s website or including them in the installation process.

In short, you don’t necessarily need or want every new software “enhancement.”

Security updates, on the other hand, are almost always worth installing. That’s why I prefer an update tool such as Secunia PSI, which flags and updates only software versions with known security issues.

It is, of course, ultimately your choice. If you prefer to always run on the latest versions of software, then apps such as Patch My PC, CNET Download App, and FileHippo App Manager make it easy to do so. For nonsecurity updates, I prefer a more measured, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. I install newer software only when it offers a clear benefit — and for that, general updaters aren’t all that useful.

For more information about updating software and services, see the July 26, 2012, Top Story, “Software that updates your other software,” and a related item in the Feb. 21, 2013, LangaList Plus column, “How and when to update your system’s drivers.”

Superfish: A warning to Lenovo PC owners

Most of you have no doubt seen in the recent news that Lenovo shipped new Win8 PCs — possibly as many as 16 million — with a potentially dangerous adware tool called VisualDiscovery/Superfish.

OEM-installed adware is nothing new, but Superfish uses a security certificate that decrypts all HTTPS Internet traffic sent by your browser. The problem is so serious that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an alert (TA15-051A) that Lenovo users immediately remove Superfish and its security certificate. The alert states:

“Since [Superfish’s] private key can easily be recovered from the Superfish software, an attacker can generate a certificate for any website that will be trusted by a system with the Superfish software installed. This means websites, such as banking and email, can be spoofed without a warning from the browser.”

According to a Lenovo security-advisory page, the initial reason for discontinuing the use of Superfish was that “user feedback was not positive” (possibly the PC-security understatement of the year). Nevertheless, the company has released automated and manual methods to remove Superfish, as noted on a Lenovo support page.

Microsoft has updated Win8’s built-in Windows Defender and the standalone Safety Scanner (site) to remove both the Superfish infection and the bogus certificate.

Microsoft Security Essentials (for Vista and Win7) also can detect and remove Superfish, although Lenovo didn’t ship any Win7/Vista PCs with that adware installed. Other major anti-malware vendors are also releasing Superfish-removal tools.

Moreover, Mozilla has issued a Firefox hotfix because — according to a Mozilla post — disinfection tools might not completely remove Superfish from the browser.

If you have a Win8 Lenovo PC, I urge you to follow the Lenovo removal instructions (site) and then scan your system with Win8’s Windows Defender, Safety Scanner, or another reputable tool that specifically targets and removes Superfish.

A small utility for big file-management issues

One of those extremely annoying Windows experiences is trying to delete a file or folder and getting only an error message: “Cannot delete file: Access is denied.”

You can spend a lot of time checking permissions or associated processes — or you can simply download Unlocker, a free utility that lets you take back control of your files.

A word of caution when installing Unlocker

Unlocker was written by French programmer Cedrick Collomb to solve a specific problem — the inability to delete a file or folder. Like many small utilities, Unlocker was created because its author could not find a convenient equivalent tool built into Windows.

As is the case for many small utilities, downloading and installing Unlocker might trigger security warnings. In fact, if you search for it via Google, the search results will return a link to Collomb’s Empty Loop site with the warning: “This site may harm your computer.” But the app is safe to use and can be downloaded from software sites such as CNET Download.com, FileHippo, MajorGeeks, and Softonic. Several sites also offer a portable version of Unlocker.

Note: Unlocker can also be downloaded from its Empty Loop homepage. But when I tried that source, both Firefox and Chrome blocked the download. Chrome displayed the message: “Unlocker1.9.2.exe may harm your browsing experience, so Chrome has blocked it.” Below that, you’ll also see the words: “Recover Malicious File” or “Remove from List.”

Whichever download site you use, watch out for potentially unwanted software offers and confusing links. With Firefox, the CNET site offered the “Direct Download Link” option (see Figure 1). I recommend using it to simplify the setup process.

Figure 1. Whenever offered, use CNET's Direct Download Link option for downloading utilities.

The Direct Download option didn’t appear when I used Chrome. You have to be careful not to click one of the many other download offers.

As you step through the setup process, don’t select the Quick installation option, which is checked by default (see Figure 2). In my case, it offered to install the Delta Toolbar add-on. Click the Advanced option and uncheck the add-on selections.

Figure 2. As with many free utilities, clicking Unlocker's Quick install option loads potentially unwanted software such as the Delta Toolbar.

The rest of the setup process is relatively obvious. You have the option to check for Unlocker updates and to add an Unlocker extension to Windows/File Explorer.

The nuts and bolts of using Unlocker

Unlocker isn’t the easiest utility to use, mostly because instructions are virtually nonexistent. The utility developers seemed to assume that users will figure it out on their own. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily the case.

For example, if you launch the utility from the start menu, you get the terse navigation window shown in Figure 3. Initially, I found it confusing; but after some experimentation, I understood that you use the window to navigate to the problematic locked file or folder.

Figure 3. Unlocker starts with a less-than-intuitive navigation window.

An easier method is to simply right-click a file or folder and select Unlocker from the options menu (Figure 4).

Figure 4. The easiest way to launch Unlocker is to right-click a file or folder and select the tool from the popup menu of options.

No matter how you launch Unlocker, if it doesn’t find that the selected files are locked, it’ll display a “No Locking handle found” dialog box (see Figure 5), which contains a dropdown list of options — you can take no action, delete the file, rename it, or move it.

Figure 5. If Unlocker doesn't find a file's locking handle, it still gives you options — including deleting, moving, or copying the file.

If it does find locked files, they’ll be displayed in a list, as shown in Figure 6. (Note: Unlocker seems to fail if you manually select multiple files or folders.) More precisely, you’ll see a list of locked processes.

Figure 6. A collection of locked processes found by Unlock

For a given file, you have the four choices mentioned above plus the ability to kill processes or unlock one — or unlock all that are listed.

A few observations and recommendations

According to Unlocker’s information, there are several reasons a file might be locked. It could be because of sharing violations, or the file might be in use by an application or other user, or the containing drive might be file-protected. Whatever the reason, Unlocker claims it can give back control of the file. The aforementioned info page has a large chart of what Unlocker can do and how it compares to similar tools. (It’s actually an excellent list of unlocking/process-killing apps.)

Note that although Unlocker is considered safe, it might run afoul of anti-malware applications. Check your security software’s manual for putting Unlocker on your white list. If Unlocker stops working, uninstall it and delete all related Registry keys; then reboot the system and reinstall the program.

Power users can run Unlocker from a command line by using the -H switch. That pops up a dialog box (Figure 7) listing Unlocker’s command options (switches). Using command-line switches makes it easier to run tasks in a batch file.

Figure 7. A popup box displays Unlocker's command-line switches.

If you’ve unlocked the handles but still can’t delete the file, select Delete in the right-hand drop-down menu and then select Unlock All — you’re done! This is, for example, a good way to delete a troublesome index.dat file.

Another tool for your PC management tool chest. As stated earlier, Unlocker isn’t the easiest program to use. If you’re having problems navigating it, you can find various tutorials online — simply search for them with your preferred search engine. You’ll discover, however, that most are extremely brief.

I suggest using Unlocker in combination with another program such as Process Monitor (Sysinternals page). You can, for example, set up a filter in Process Monitor to show all activity for a locked file — including the specific process that’s causing the lock. Then use Unlocker to unlock or kill the problem process. It just might save you a system reboot.