File LockSmith via commandline

[nutnutwin]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Thank you for creating this feature

I went through documents https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/file-locksmith and found no info on how to unlock folder using commandline(CMD)

Scenario when this would be used?

to unlock folder using programming

for example, in LockHunter https://lockhunter.com/

I can run in

C:\Program Files\LockHunter\LockHunter.exe "C:\Temp" to unlock folder

Supporting information

No response

[jdfa]

It would be also useful for me. I think outputting list of processes which is using current file is more important than killing some of them (taskkill can do that).

[pranavpa8788]

+1 Agreed

[mortl3000]

+1 would be also useful for me

[xaviercarmo]

+1, would also like this feature

[joehom0416]

+1

[simbarras]

+1

[David-Kyrat]

+1 Edit: not needed anymore, I switched to Linux. It was easier. Although I highly support the adding of this kind of power user toys to Windows.

[lwahonen]

See my comments in https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/28529

[PZan]

+1

[cow1337killer3]

Need this so badly. Sysinternals handle is a piece of junk and doesn't work.

[PolarGoose]

There are already existing console tools

• Sysinternals Handle. Note: it doesn't support Unicode file names. Take a fixed version from here
• Handle2

Don't they do what is asked?

[lwahonen]

The version I implemented has features like "wait until target process closes before returning", which is immensely useful in scripts.

[PolarGoose]

@lwahonen,

You can do that with a small PowerShell script:

param (
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
    [string]$PathToTheFileOrFolder
)

$handleInformation = & "$PSScriptRoot/handle64.exe" -accepteula -nobanner -v $PathToTheFileOrFolder
foreach($lockingProcess in ConvertFrom-CSV -Delimiter "," -InputObject $handleInformation) {
    Write-Host "Kill locking process: $lockingProcess"
    Stop-Process -Id $lockingProcess.Pid -Force

    Write-Host "Wait until the process is stopped"
    while (Get-Process -Id $lockingProcess.Pid -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
    }
}

Also, Sysinternals Handle is more reliable. When run from an admin, it uses a kernel driver, PROCEXP152.SYS, to get the locking information.