I just found out the culprit to the specific issue that I posted in above in this thread. It hasn't happened to me in a few weeks, until just a few moments ago. This time, I was ready for and waiting for it--I had Unlocker installed which caught the scoundrel responsible red-handed.
The specific executable that was locking the folder in question was cisvc.exe, a component of the Windows Indexing Service.
[quote="Windows Services Management Console"]Indexing Service
Indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers; provides rapid access to files through flexible querying language."[/quote]
[quote="The MSDN Authors"]
Change-Notification Component
The Change-Notification component informs Indexing Service when files have been altered (added, modified, deleted) to trigger indexing or re-indexing of the contents and values of changed files.
The Change-Notification component is part of the cisvc.exe file.
Indexing Component
The Indexing component calls the Filtering component to extract the text and values from files that need to be filtered. After additional processing, it merges the resulting word lists into an index that is saved to disk. Indexing Service eventually merges content information (the text within a file) into the master index and saves value information (properties internal to the file) in the property cache.
The cisvc.exe file contains the Indexing component.
Scanning Component
The Scanning component detects file modifications that trigger filtering of the files. If all indexed files exist on drives that support change notification in some way, scanning operations are only necessary the first time a catalog is created or during crash recovery. Otherwise, the Indexing component calls the Scanning component when the operating system has no way to flag change notifications.
The cisvc.exe file contains the Scanning component.[/quote]
When I used Task Manager to kill the cisvc.exe process, the folder immediately disappeared.
I had enabled the Windows Indexing Service a few months ago to look at it. In the modern day craze of desktop search engines, most people do not realize that the Windows operating system comes with an indexer and search engine built-in. It's not as sexy as Yahoo! or Google's. (and apparently is the cause of several system slow down and other issues such as seen in the articles below.[ul][li]Indexing Service(System Services for the Windows Server 2003 Family and Windows XP Operating Systems)[/li]
[li] KB329065 - PRB: Access Denied Error When You Make Code Modifications with Index Services Running[/li]
[li] KB899869 - Windows XP may run slowly and you may see multiple symptoms in Windows Task Manager[/li][/ul]I'm theorizing (or speculating) it is a hit-or-miss thing when the user deletes a folder in Opus (usually a large sized folder full of files) that cisvc.exe may have indexed (or might even be indexing at that time) is probably the cause.
The trigger event I saw went as follows:[ol][li] I started a rather large copy operation in Opus.[/li]
[li] I realized I made a mistake and canceled the operation.[/li]
[li] I attempted to delete the files and folders that had been copied.
RESULTS: All files were successfully deleted, even those below the subfolder that was locked. All subfolders except the one were successfully deleted.[/li][/ol]To my best recollection, the other instances where I experienced this issue were similar to the one described above. I was always copying and deleting files, rearranging folder contents and performing Synchronizations (which does the same steps as I describe above).
RESOLUTION:
To turn off the Indexing service, follow these steps:[ol]
[li] Open Windows Explorer[/li]
[li] Click the Search button on the toolbar.[/li]
[li] Click Change preferences[/li]
[li] Click on the Green Arrow icon next to Without Indexing Service.
NOTE: This listing will be named "With Indexing Service" if Windows Search is not currently configured to use this service.[/li]
[li] Click No, do not enable Indexing Service.[/li]
[li] Click on Change Index Service Settings (Advanced)
A Management Console window appears. If Windows was ever configured to build an Indexing Service catalog, the path to this catalog will be listed in this window. If you see such a path, right-click on the entry and select Delete. Then close the Management Console.[/li]
[li] Once back in Windows Explorer, click OK, close the Search Pane, and then close Windows Explorer.[/li]
[li] Open the Services Management Console: click on Start Menu > Run, type "services.msc", and press Enter.[/li]
[li] Locate Indexing Service from the list of services, and double-click on it to open the Properties form.[/li]
[li] On the General tab of the Indexing Service Properties dialog, in the Startup type drop-down item list, click Disabled.[/li]
[li] Click OK.[/li]
[li] Close the Services Management Console.[/li][/ol]