cannot delete download

I downloaded a file having to do with dancing dogs. I never saw the video or what ever it was supposed to show but I heard the music.

I saved it to my desktop for scanning.
It's in my Irfanview WMV somewhere but I don't know how to delete it. When I go to Irfanview/edit the delete is grayed out.

Also I can't delete it from my desktop.
When I try to delete it an error message comes up:

Cannot delete dancers_1: access is denied.
make sure the disk is not write protected and that the file is not currently in use.

Should I do a "restore "?.
Also I found it in the Registry.

Can someone give me some instructions on how to get this out of the system? Thanks

 

What you probably have run into is in the design of XP. Its called tunneling. That means any file (specifically a Windows file, as an avi is) that is viewed is kept frozen for a specific time so that it cannot be deleted or renamed.

The easiest way to delete it is to reboot and immediately right click on the file and choose Delete. Don't try to open it first or the above "tunneling" will kick in.

The permanent fix is a registry change which I'll post here but if you're not comfortable with editing the registry, best to try the reboot/delete first.

Start Registry Editor and select the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/FileSystem
From the Edit menu, click "Add Value. "
Type the following value to reduce the default cache time:
Value Name: MaximumTunnelEntryAgeInSeconds
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 15 <-- change to fit your needs in seconds.

-or-

Type the following value to disable tunneling:
Value Name: MaximumTunnelEntries
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

 

I went into the registry and did a "find ". It came up with a couple of other things that I downloaded. Can't I just delete it from there?

 

=====delete it form dos======
*Right click the file and select "properties "
*click the "general" tab and make note of the shorted 8.3 "msdos_name" for the file
*restart in dos mode
*type cd\ and press enter
*type cd\windows\desktop and press enter
*type del *.* [substitute the name of the actually file you wish to delete for the *.*]
* type exit and you should be returned to windows with the file gone from the desktop.

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Any problems understanding or doing this procedure, just let me know. The attributes may have to be changed, but thats borrowing trouble you may not have and requires additioinal steps in dos you may not need

*Note* More than likely the registry references you are looking at are in MRU lists or "most recently used" lists. In any case, editing the registry will not delete the actually file or folder. Just a reference or pointer as to where this file or folder is or when it was last accessed, or any personal customizations/changes you made have made to it, etc... [In most cases!]

 

Thank you for all that information

 

Should you delete this in dosmode, let me know how it went.

Please remember to substitue the actual file name for the *.*!!!!!!. I just noticed you have classified yourself as a beginner. The * symbol is called a wildcard symbol and if used as such will delete everything not marked as read only from your desktop.

I guess, in hindsight, I should have used some other symbol such as X.X or ?.? in my instructions. So sorry....

*Note to self-I will do this in the future*

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Out of curiosity, what is the name of this file?
Did you scan it?
Did you install it?