When You Can't Delete a File

How do I delete a file when Windows insists that it's "being used by another person or program"?

Rob Oldenburg, Wellington, Florida

This is easy to do in Windows 98: Select Start, Shut Down, Restart in MS-DOS mode, and then use the del filename command to delete the file from the DOS prompt. To do this, you'll have to know the path to the file on your hard drive. And remember that a file called "Photo of Mary.jpg" in Windows is probably something like photoo~1.jpg in DOS.

You have to boot from your startup floppy disk to accomplish the same thing in Windows Me. If you don't have a startup disk, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, double-click Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk, and then follow the prompts (be sure to have a blank, formatted floppy disk ready beforehand). If you reboot your computer with the startup disk in the drive, you'll get to a DOS prompt from which you can delete the file.

Unfortunately, you can't exit to DOS in Windows 2000 and XP, so try deleting the file in Safe Mode: Select Start, Turn Off Computer, Restart. During the reboot--and just before Windows loads--press F8 (it may take you a few attempts to get the timing right). Select Safe Mode, and then try to delete the file.

If that doesn't work, download Gibin Software House's GiPo@MoveOnBoot. This free program lets you define files to be copied, moved, or deleted the next time you boot--before Windows loads.

Remove Dual Boot

I'm running a dual-boot system with Windows XP and Windows 98. I no longer want to use 98. What steps do I take to remove the dual boot?

George Nowotny, Port Moody, British Columbia

To kill the "Please select the operating system..." menu that comes up every time you boot, load Windows XP, click the Start button, right-click My Computer, and select Properties, Advanced. Choose the Settings button under 'Startup and Recovery'.

If your XP installation isn't listed as the 'Default operating system', select it from the drop-down menu, click OK twice, and reboot. Return to 'Startup and Recovery', and click the Edit button to bring up boot.ini in Notepad. Delete the last line of the file (see FIGURE 2), which should be the unwanted boot option. Save the file, exit Notepad, click OK twice, and reboot. XP should load with no menu. If there's a problem, use System Restore to return to the status quo, and try again.

If you have partitioning software such as Symantec's PartitionMagic, you may want to delete the Windows 98 partition and resize the Windows XP one. But otherwise, don't worry about it. Simply use the Win 98 partition to store backups or for some other purpose.