Windows 10: deleting a directory doesn't work... but works [closed]

Question

I am developping a application. Sometimes, I want to completely delete the building directory.

When I do this I get an error from Windows, that either I don't have acess or some file(s) in the directory is/are open.

Well, when I go down into the hierarchy of this directory, at some point I may delete everything, and when I go up again in the hierarchy, I'm able to delete everything, even the topmost directory I wanted to delete first.

So I'm able to do what I want but it is kind of a hassle.

Any idea why Windows is behaving this way ?

Answer 1

This is just a shot in the dark, but my best guess is, there is a background process which scans the files in your "building" directory, and as long as this process did not complete its task, it may block the deletion.

This could be either a process of your version control system (like TortoiseSVN or TortoiseGit, trying to update information for overlay icons in the Windows explorer), or your malware scanner, scanning all new files with some delay. When a build produces or touches several hundred files, the delayed scanning may require a few minutes to complete.

Answer 2

If I were to hazard a guess I would assume that you are not calling .Dispose or are not correctly using to instantiate file resources. Do you get the same error message on the first instance of compile&run after a fresh system reboot? If the issue is not present, but then occurs on the second time, you are simply not freeing your resources correctly.