Application: Unlocker
Category: Utilities
Description: Unlocker is a freeware utility to unlock open handles on files so that they may be deleted.
Download Unlocker Portable 1.0.0.9 [691KB download / 590KB installed]
(MD5: 87bd685f17609ca3296c36e37bff1425)
Setup Instructions:
1. install Unlocker Portable
2. download the latest version of Unlocker from
http://cedrick.collomb.perso.sfr.fr/unlocker/
3. open the installer with 7-Zip
4. extract these files to the App\Unlocker directory -
Unlocker.exe UnlockerCOM.dll UnlockerDriver5.sys UnlockerHook.dll
5. run UnlockerPortable.exe
Release Notes:
1.0.0.9 (2010-01-22)
- threaded splashscreen (doesn't block program execution)
1.0.0.8 (2010-01-22)
- update to driver key removal on exit
- INI option to disable splash screen
- confirmed compatibility with Unlocker 1.8.8
Development Test 2 (2008-04-07):
- Updated to PAF format
- Added splash screen
Development Test 1: Initial release
- will prompt for UAC elevation in Vista, and will terminate if it does not have admin rights (any OS)
- now includes SetACL to facilitate removal of the Enum\Root\LEGACY_UNLOCKERDRIVER5 reg key
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I think there should be a way to include 7z in the package then use the commandline interface with exec to extract it. Then use gnuwget to download it, then clean everything up. Or at least it should work...
Anyway, great app :).
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Yeah that could be done....but it's a lot of work
Plus I'm a *little* funny on automating a process like that for a freeware app that I don't have permission to redistribute. Just seems more considerate to ask the user to download directly from the author's website. Not to mention I'd have to re-release the launcher each time a new Unlocker version was released, since the filename keeps changing...
just tell the user to put it in the same directory as the installer to extract
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
show up on my context menu. But I'll try again at home. These PCs aren't set up according to standards (the university has things set up differently).
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
What does unlocker do?
Simplifying daily life through technology
See here for a description.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
the website.
It unlocks folders and files you cant move/delete cause an App is still "using" them. Sometimes explorer locks files and Unlocker unlocks them.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
That sounds interestion.
Simplifying daily life through technology
Yeah, I guess I figured everyone would just know what it was, it's pretty popular. Either way the link's in the first post in the instructions part.
Re: the missing shell extension...it's probably an issue of admin rights. I don't think you can register DLLs and such on a non-admin account. This was one of the things I wanted people to test for me. If it's not going to work on a non-admin account, I'll restrict the launcher to only run if the user has admin privs.
Updated to 1.0.0.7. See first post.
Can this be put in PAF.EXE format as practilcly every app and some launchers have been?
Simplifying daily life through technology
It's a freeware app, not open-source/gpl.
I think everyone knows that...but the launcher can still be packaged and distributed in a .paf friendly format.
You'll see, gimme a few days (maybe tomorrow).
you need 2 dev test dont you
Please search before posting. ~Thanks
I was doing a quick pre-release to see if it worked for everyone and if people were interested. If so (and it seems so), I was gonna .paf it and upgrade to a Dev Test. I'll get to it tomorrow sometime maybe. I have a few other things I'm working on too.
Let me know when you get a PAF working, and I'll help troubleshoot.
Not related to Unlocker Portable, but related to the discussion about naming...John had also said that launcher-only packages should not be marked as Dev Test
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Ok....so just leave it as Unlocker Portable 1.0.0.7 then?
What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...
The launcher isn't in PAF format. In the root of the app, there are 2 folders. App, and source. It should be App, data, and other. This is actually the ONLY app OR launcher I have seen that does not follow this format, even the old, but not obsolete, Project 64 launcher follows it.
Simplifying daily life through technology
Relax, I'm aware. It's a zip file too. I put it out there to bugtest and didn't feel like doing all the PAF work at the time. I'm getting to it.
Also, if you want the folders to be preset in PAF format for you, look at this. https://portableapps.com/node/12314 The folders are preset in the format for you.
Simplifying daily life through technology
I appreciate the suggestions.
But this isn't my first app (cdrtfe, EDT). I've got it under control, thanks.
To please the PAF spec police...
I put all the files in but it did not work for me.
May the Shwartz be with you
Sorry, but you'll have to be a *little* more descriptive than that...
Wraithdu: Trying for the first time after following your instructions above for installing 1.0.0.7. Opened a file with SciTE, so it should be in-use/locked. Went to Windows Explorer, navigated to the file, highlighted it, pressed the delete key and a dialogue appeared as though I had held the shift key down, i.e. it wasn't going to the recycle bin. Pressing yes caused the file to be really deleted. So somehow Unlocker had removed the lock AND cleared the go-to-recycle-bin flag (wherever it is)!
Tried again with another file, this time opend with notepad. Right clicked file in explorer, selected the Unlocker entry in the menu, and it said "No locking handle found" which can't be right as Notepad has it open?
Not sure I undestand what's going on (or how to reinstate the delete to recycle bin default action)
RogerL
Unlocker doesn't do anything to the delete to recycle bin command. Were these files on your USB drive? If so, the USB drive doesn't have a recycle bin, and the option to delete to the recycle bin will never appear.
Second, opening a file in notepad/scite will not cause the file to be locked. It's only opened for read/write access, which is not quite the same. To see an example of locking handles, right click on ntdll.dll in your C:\Windows\System32 directory. I REALLY WOULDN'T try unlocking that file though
Oh, and sometimes I've had files/folders that I can't delete through windows explorer, that when opened in Unlocker don't show any locking handles. But if I choose Delete from the dropdown and click OK, the file/folder will be deleted.
yes, silly me, I knew that (USB drives don't have a recycle bin), just having a senior moment, sorry to waste your time on the answer!
Thanks for the ntdll.dll example... it was nice to see unlocker 'working' which I had failed to do.
The reason I was interested in trying unlocker is because I have often found files that wouldn't delete without knowing what app had locked them and then not unlocked them when finished. I wll try your suggestion of Deleting from the dropdown next time... is this with unlocker running or without?
The dropdown is in the Unlocker window that displays the locking handles or says none found. You choose delete (or another option) before clicking OK. I'm still not sure why this works even if no locking handles are displayed, but it does!
About the Recycle Bin, you should be a little more specific when talking about USB drives. USB Flash drives don't have the Recycle Bin, but USB Hard-Disk Drives do.
Just thought this info would remove some confusion for users who aren't as computer-literate as others.
One question. Why does the version number in the topic say 1.0.0.7 if Unlocker is at 1.8.6?
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
It's the version number of the launcher. Since it's not open source and I can't include the binary, it seemed pointless and silly to put that version number to the launcher. What, would I re-release the exact same package when a new version of Unlocker is released and just change the name? LOL, no thanks
The download link does not work
Edit: does work now for somereason, thank you for the nice app
I may have found a bug with this. I had this program installed to my hard drive to unlock a file, I found it very useful so I decided to copy it to my flash drive and delete it from my system. The problem is that UnlockerCOM.dll cannot be deleted and there is no way to unlock it. What should I do to get rid of this file?
I'm not sure what you mean "installed to my hard drive"? You had the normal program installed, or you tried my portable app on your hard drive first? Did you close the program before trying to copy / delete it?
The launcher registers & unregisters the COM.dll (shell extension). You may need to close and re-open any explorer windows for explorer to release the DLL. At worst, just reboot.
Now if you actually installed the program and then just deleted it, well I can't help you there. It's never given me any trouble though.
I had extracted the portable version to my hard drive. I think it may have been that I still had an explorer window open from when the program was running like you said. I had to reboot anyways so I'll never know if closing the explorer window works.
Here's the files I got..
Unlocker.exe
UnlockerAssistant.exe
UnlockerDriver5.sys
UnlockerHook.dll
README.TXT
UnlockerCOM.dll seems to have been removed, any chance this launcher will be updated to reflect the changes?
Look harder next time. It's in -
$COMMONFILES\Unlocker\
after you open the installer with 7-zip.
Hi,
I don't know why, but if I launch the App once, it works. Then if, for any reason, I move the directory to another folder (or let say I just change the drive letter), the laucnher won't work any more until I kill and relaunch explorer.
Seems to be some uncleared variables.
Regards
The drivers remain in memory, although 'uninstalled', until you reboot (or manually reload explorer). Just the nature of the app and windows, not the launcher. I guess you could call it semi-portable.
First of all: Great launcher, works nice! But I just checked the MD5 (*after* installing, stupid me), and it is different from what you entered above. Is it because of updating the launcher without re-checking the MD5? I sure hope so ...
Thanks,
Mex
Huh, not sure. I've reuploaded the installer with the correct MD5. Thanks for pointing that out.
Just checking if this is likely to be updated to 1.8.8?
Thanks for the launcher
PortableApps.com Advocate
Unless 1.8.8 has major changes, it should still work. Give it a shot and let me know!
See first post for details.
unlockr site seems to be down. COpy on file hippo:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_unlocker/
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
There's another official mirror listed on the main site:
http://cedrick.collomb.perso.sfr.fr/unlocker/
didn't see that
Already got it from filehippo
Thanks, it works wonderfully.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Since the user just has to download a zip file and unzip it to the app directory, why not make this an online installer to automate the process?
It's not a zip file, you have to open the EXE installer with 7-zip to extract the components.
And my launcher is written in AutoIt, so I'm not wasting my time.
the author of unlocker has a zip available now too.
Unlocker 1.8.8 Portable - From ccollomb.free.fr
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I don't think it would really be wasting your time. All you have to do is add installer.ini to the AppInfo folder with the appropriate information.
So you're "not wasting your time", I posted the contents of intaller.ini below. Hopefully it doesn't take you too long to copy over.
EXE files can be downloaded and installed as well, as long as they can be extracted with 7-zip.
lol. Let's be jerk to the guy who's taking the time to right some really good software for us.
And doesn't ask a thing in return.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
The installer contains extra files that are not needed. And the portable install zip does not contain the shell extension which my launcher registers / unregisters.
Assuming I can get this to work, there's still the problem that the installer name (and MD5) changes with each new Unlocker release. My launcher does not necessarily have to be updated to support a new version of Unlocker, so a new package release for each new version of Unlocker IS a waste of my time.
So I actually do have this working. But there's a few things:
1) Still don't know how to get around the installer name changes
2) This increases the size of the installer to over 1 MB... lame
3) The Unlocker dev's hosting is messed up right now and the working mirror is only temporary
4) My antivirus goes crazy over the installer download because of the EBay shortcut installer that he bundles with it. Not exactly confidence inspiring for would-be users.
Oh, that would be the adware flagged by the av.
Thank god for the portable version
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Except that the official portable zip doesn't include the shell extension, which my portable launcher uses - it is registered on start, then unregistered on close. This adds the Unlocker right-click context menu entry. Even the official portable package doesn't have this. IMO, it is the most convenient way to use Unlocker. The official portable version just runs an open file dialog and you have to choose a file or folder. It's a one shot deal and kinda cumbersome if you ask me.
I figure it's better to have a user download and extract the installer from the official site, where an AV warning might not be as suspicious as if it comes from my package's installer.
I meant your portable version
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
Thanks
I try.
then leave it the way it is. I don't find online installers are worth the hype some people make about them.
And imho it isn't worth updating the installer every time a new version gets released just so the MD5 and the name is right. Save your time for the essentials!
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Hi wraithdu, not wishing to waste your time as there isn't a workaround for a changing filename in an online installer, you might want to stop reading here
I had a look at the changelog for Unlocker. It doesn't appear to be very hectic so, if you reconsider (and for anyone else that's interested), the installer doesn't have to extract the entire contents of the file -
And a bit of custom code in "PortableApps.comInstallerCustom.nsh" to put UnlockerCOM.dll in the right place and clean up -
If you made it this far, thanks for reading
Wow, that's f'n scary...
That is EXACTLY line for line the same code I had working for this yesterday, including the PostInstall macro.
Get out of my mind!!!
Small one, see first post.
Great work, but I'd like to suggest implementing this as a drop target like EraserDrop
I envisage the following ...
* run from the portable apps menu, the drop target appears
* drag 'n' drop the "locked" file/folder to the drop target
* unlocker opens showing dialog with options (default behaviour if run from cmd line)
* unlocker does its job then exits closing drop target
There is also a download for Unlocker 1.8.8 portable on one of the sites listed in the description:
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/#download
It's not in PAF, but it's worth a look.
I followed your instructions, but it does nothing when I run it. it puts a icon in my taskbar, and thats it. It gives me no right click context menu options. Nothing at all.
I don't want to be that "There is a new version" guy, but, there is a new version. I just threw that out here because, a) I wasn't sure if this was still being developed, and b) the new versions supports Win64. If, as is often the case, the developer gets a notification, my apologies.
I am not my signature.
Theres a new portable apps version? or do you mean theres an official new version?And who is the developer your referring to?This guy just made a beta launcher
So no updates ? no way to fix my problems?
It would be nice if this launcher could support setting a local language. There is no need for supplemental files, all languages are already packed into the executable. Unlocker selects the runtime language to match its installer language code, which the installed version saves as registry value SZ "HKLM\software\microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Unlocker" "Language" "10xx" where xx is the country language code. This entry is looked up only when the program starts, so the portable launcher could add it to the registry, start Unlocker, and immediately remove it after Unlocker has started. I tested this with Unlocker 1.0.0.9.
My AVG went nuts with the launcher telling me that it is a Trojan and here is a report from Virus Total and from Jotti These scan ware made some time ago.
Here's a just-generated report of it with Virus Total - and now it's scoring 24/42 instead of 23/42: http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=b9a5ab2f52778899b9b70... and the URL scan is getting 1/6 (ParetoLogic flagging it as malware site).
Any comment, wraithdu? I presume that if it is not clean (of which I am not convinced, though it's a very high rate - "trojan" etc. is generic) it's not clean in error; do you want to make a fresh build of it to make sure it's all clean and to give assurance that it's good?
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
when I run it. it puts a icon in my taskbar, and thats it. It gives me no right click context menu options. Nothing at all.
Yea even the portable version that Unlocker provides dose not run at all. Now I installed Unlocker and it runs like a charm. I uninstalled it with revo and removed it completely then I restarted my computer and started Unlocker up and it dose not work.
Any help and that please?
maybe I just dont understand what launcher is.Can anybody explain?
A launcher is a wrapper or container that makes an application portable. The container can take a couple of different approaches to make sure the application is portable:
You can keep track of all of the changes that an application makes (ahead of time), and then when the application is done, copy those changes to portable location and remove them from the host machine (the way PortableApps apps work I believe)
Or you can trap all changes as they happen and make the application think that it's writing files to the location is wants to (e.g. "My Documents") or the Windows registry, but actually store them somewhere else (typically in files on the portable device).
Ultimately the result is the same, and the original application works as if it never wrote/changed anything on the host machine.
With this particular application you have to download and extract the actual program files for the launcher to be able to work. Many/most of the apps on PortableApps come with the launcher and the application itself together in one package.
HTH
ok well I did download this launcher and them copy the files into its folder,yet it doesn't launch anything but the icon in the task bar.it wont actually work,any suggestions?
What version of Windows are you using?
Windows 7 and Windows XP
Virus scanners recently went apeshit on a couple of my AutoIt based apps. I've recompiled and reuploaded the installer, and it scores a respectable 1/43 on VirusTotal.
I haven't tested this with Unlocker versions higher than 1.88 however, just FYI.
Non of the links provided for download at top work.
My bad, fixed my download. And the main Unlocker site link works for me (I removed the old one).
Hello Wraithdu...
Just wondering if you've tried your launcher with Unlocker 64-bit?
I don't know how you are handling the launch internally - and since the 64-bit version has a different driver, file names, etc. - didn't know if your launcher would work for it.
Thanks,
Grant
P.S. - I didn't want to launch something that might blow up on my system. That's why I'm asking first...
I finally got your Launcher to work on XP home.
I'd like to request some features on your next release,or perhaps you could tell me how I can modify my installation? Perhaps I can simply make a simple settings.ini ?
1) Id like for there to be a setting to auto start the unlocker when windows starts
2) Id also like an automatic online update check which sees if theres on on the official page
The first you will never get with portable apps, the second you will never get with our portable apps.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I have had plenty of portable apps (PA format, and NON-PA format) set to start when windows starts.But unfortunately they delete my settings.ini every time.
One such program is Auslogics Defrag. But I am using the official non portable EXE in place of the portable one.And as for automatic updates,plenty of portable apps update themselves.
It really all depends on the program.Its a case by case basis
You can set Unlocker to automatically run within the PortableApps.com Platform. Once this is released officially, it will be automatically updated as well.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I have already uninstalled unlocker portable and started using its native version.So, do you mean that the "portable apps" version will start when I start the Portable Apps.EXE? or it will start when I start windows if the drive is already connected?
So portable apps has its own "startup" folder?settings?
And when you say it will be automatically updated,your referring to portable apps that have been officially created and integrated for your platform correct?
1. Right-click any app in the Platform. Guess what "Start Automatically" does
2. Yes. Using the Updater bundled with the Platform.
Previously known as kAlug.
I never knew that option was there, but it only starts it oince you start the Portable Apps.exe
I want it to start the program when windows loads.
And for updating,tha feature only works in the latest release.And it only updates the "portable Apps" programs.It does not go to the original programs website and auto update the program,since they all cant be installed that way.
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