Openfiles utility

I have no idea how I didn’t know this existed - it’s been around for ages. Openfiles.exe has existed on Windows machines since Windows XP, and this is something that I’ve struggled with for years!

Openfiles.exe /query /s file-server > openfiles.txt

This will export to a list all open files by user on that particular server as per below

ID       Accessed By          Type       Open File (Pathexecutable)          
======== ==================== ========== =====================================
31541186 eric              Windows    F:\..\Example\June
42278615 tom              Windows    E:\..\Example2\doc
46977638 john              Windows    E:\..\Hello
30870272 jane              Windows    E:\..Place\file.docx

If you would like to “kill” one of these locks, for example the lock Tom has on you can just disconnect them using the same utility, supplying the ID as follows:

openfiles.exe /disconnect /id 42278615