Comments by Grasshopper.iics (Top 12 by date)

This works fine under Windows 7, does not require to open another process ( handle.exe). All you be doing is using GetProcessesLockingFile() method. Solution to Non trivial problems can not be trivial. Even handle.exe shoots up loads of problems !

As par your question, it was meant to be "if a file is being used by another process". Do let me understand if your question suggest anything in particular which is not answered? Say if you needed an information about "which process is currently accessing a file?"

If you had, I would have given you following solution which will display the process that is actually holding your file access ( Somethimes back I had done similar stuff, ref stackoverflow.com)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

namespace FileLockInfo
{
public class Win32Processes
{
///

/// Return a list of processes that hold on the given file.
///

///

static void Main()
{
Console.WriteLine("C:\\Users\\Rupam\\Desktop\\Transaction Details.pdf");

GetProcessesLockingFile("C:\\Users\\Rupam\\Desktop\\Transaction Details - PayPal.pdf");
Console.Read();

}
public static List<Process> GetProcessesLockingFile(string filePath)
{
var procs = new List<Process>();

var processListSnapshot = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (var process in processListSnapshot)
{
Console.WriteLine( process.ProcessName);
if (process.Id <= 4) { continue; } // system processes
var files = GetFilesLockedBy(process);
if (files.Contains(filePath))
{

Console.WriteLine("--------------->"+process.ProcessName);
procs.Add(process);
}
}
return procs;
}

///

/// Return a list of file locks held by the process.
///

public static List<string> GetFilesLockedBy(Process process)
{
var outp = new List<string>();

ThreadStart ts = delegate
{
try
{
outp = UnsafeGetFilesLockedBy(process);
}
catch { Ignore(); }
};

try
{
var t = new Thread(ts);
t.IsBackground = true;
t.Start();
if (!t.Join(250))
{
try
{
t.Interrupt();
t.Abort();
}
catch { Ignore(); }
}
}
catch { Ignore(); }

return outp;
}


#region Inner Workings
private static void Ignore() { }
private static List<string> UnsafeGetFilesLockedBy(Process process)
{
try
{
var handles = GetHandles(process);
var files = new List<string>();

foreach (var handle in handles)
{
var file = GetFilePath(handle, process);
if (file != null) files.Add(file);
}

return files;
}
catch
{
return new List<string>();
}
}

const int CNST_SYSTEM_HANDLE_INFORMATION = 16;
private static string GetFilePath(Win32API.SYSTEM_HANDLE_INFORMATION systemHandleInformation, Process process)
{
var ipProcessHwnd = Win32API.OpenProcess(Win32API.ProcessAccessFlags.All, false, process.Id);
var objBasic = new Win32API.OBJECT_BASIC_INFORMATION();
var objObjectType = new Win32API.OBJECT_TYPE_INFORMATION();
var objObjectName = new Win32API.OBJECT_NAME_INFORMATION();
var strObjectName = "";
var nLength = 0;
IntPtr ipTemp, ipHandle;

if (!Win32API.Duplicate

You would fail to get solution. You will try. You will not get there. You keep on trying. So you are glued to your system till you get the solution. Once you get there, you will be more confident and will try to see the end of any programming problem the same way. Keep working is the motto! 18 hours is a phrase. Dont we all intrinsically agree to it?