As is so often the case, I don't know if this is a bug or the result of some combinations of settings I've twiddled, I can say only that the behavior is quite reliable. The short version is that it seems like Directory Opus holds on to *.rar files. I work with a lot of music stuff, for example, and the downloads are often multi-part *.rar files. When I go to delete them from my downloads folder using Opus, I frequently get told that I need to escalate to administrative privileges to delete them, and then the operation fails when I agree to do so. When I use third-party tools to find out which process is holding on to them (viz., Sysinternals Procexp tool), the answer is always Directory Opus. I have to exit Opus, use Windows Explorer to delete the files, and then re-launch Opus. If I so much as navigate to the folder in which they exist using Opus, it will hold on to them and refuse to delete them. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
Opus should release locks on .rar files unless it is actively using them, or you have an image or similar within an archive still open in a viewer.
The issue could be caused by something else running within the Opus process, though. For example, if Opus opens the archive it might trigger an antivirus scanner, which would usually be attributed as running inside the process that is opening the file (or would at least block that file-open request until the scan had completed).
Shell extensions can also access any file/folder you look in.
It could also be a bug, but we'd need to know the steps to reproduce it to investigate that.
Thanks for the information. I'll see if I can find out what extensions and such might be involved.
One thing that might reveal what's happening is a Process Monitor log:
That would show which code or component is opening and closing the archive. It can be a pain to work out which thing failed to close it, but it might be worth a look, if you want to make one and send it to us.
If you do send a log, please include details of the archive file name so we can filter on it.
Thanks for the tip. I regularly use that tool for other purposes and already have it installed (I'm a developer). But for whatever reason, it didn't occur to me to use it. I'll see what I can glean and get back to you.