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A utility for checking which processes are using a specific file or folder, directly from the Windows context menu.

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stack-rift/simple-file-handle-inspector

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Simple File Handle Inspector

A utility for checking which processes are using a specific file or folder, directly from the Windows context menu.


⚙️ Features

  • Adds context menu entries for files and folders:
    • 🧩 Find which process is using this file
    • 📂 Find which process is using this folder
  • Uses Sysinternals' handle.exe to detect file locks
  • Displays the process name, PID, and full executable path
  • Includes a cleanup shortcut to remove the context menu entries

🪛 Installation and usage

  1. Run the configure.bat
    This sets up the context menu entries.

  2. Right-click a file or folder → choose the new context menu item
    The utility will open and show the processes that are locking the file or folder.


🧹 Cleanup

To uninstall/remove the context menu entries, run the cleanup (run before deleting the utility).bat

This will safely remove all registry entries.

After that, it's safe to delete the utility folder.


🪟 Windows 11 Notes

Due to UI changes in Windows 11, context menu entries may appear under "Show more options" (Shift + Right Click).
This is a Windows limitation and cannot be bypassed via registry keys alone.


📄 License & Acknowledgements

  • This utility uses handle.exe from Microsoft Sysinternals
  • handle.exe and its EULA are included unmodified
  • This utility does not modify or redistribute the Sysinternals binary in any altered form

🔐 Privacy

No data is sent or collected. All operations happen locally on your machine.


🧠 Notes

You can safely move the utility's folder. Just re-run the configure.bat after moving it.


⚠️ Download Warning

Some browsers (like Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome) may block the download of this utility's archive. This is a false positive — a precaution triggered by the presence of batch files.

The utility is fully open-source, contains no networking code, and does not collect any data.

How to proceed:

  • Download the files manually from this repository
  • Or clone the repository using git clone

🙋 Contact

Feel free to reach out with suggestions, questions, or improvements:


Enjoy!

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A utility for checking which processes are using a specific file or folder, directly from the Windows context menu.

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