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понеділок, 23 вересня 2024 р.

### Title: **Explosive Gadgets: Analyzing the Mysterious Events in Lebanon**

 ### Title: **Explosive Gadgets: Analyzing the Mysterious Events in Lebanon**


#### Introduction:

Recent media reports have stirred significant intrigue regarding a series of explosions involving gadgets in Lebanon on September 17 and 18, 2024. Approximately 5,000 pagers reportedly exploded in a coordinated incident, followed by similar reports of smartphones and other devices experiencing spontaneous combustion. While lithium batteries pose inherent risks, the scale and nature of these events raise critical questions. How could such widespread gadget malfunctions occur? This article delves into the science behind lithium batteries, explores the feasibility of remote activation, and examines the potential for tampering or modification of devices, all while questioning the veracity of subsequent reports.

Media reports

 Network_support · bastyon.com 17 min read


In connection with the latest events in Lebanon on September 17 and 18, 2024, I would like to address the question - how is this even possible? That gadgets explode?! There is always an answer to everything, especially in the exact sciences such as chemistry, physics and programming.

Media reports

On the 17th, according to media reports, about 5,000 pagers were blown up at one point in Lebanon. And on the 18th, there were reports of explosions and spontaneous combustion of other devices, such as smartphones, walkie-talkies, and stations with solar panels.

Yes, the lithium battery itself is quite dangerous under certain conditions. But with such force, as was seen in the footage on the network, it certainly does not explode, especially such a small battery - like on a pager. Even if the battery on the device is damaged, in the worst case it will burn out very quickly, perhaps with a small pop, but certainly not explode as footage from the scene showed us. This can be easily checked on Utrupe by searching “How does a lithium battery explode.”


Here in the photo is a battery fire, I want to note that the battery is quite large, but at the same time it did not explode like a grenade, but burned out very quickly!

Let's assume that a batch of 5,000 pagers were modified in advance. This is indicated by the force of the explosion. Most likely, in the typical sense, a bomb was not planted there - since this would have been quickly discovered even during the purchase of equipment. My opinion on this matter is the following:-

The battery consists of an anode and a cathode containing lithium. This element oxidizes fairly quickly and burns well. Between the anode and cathode there is an electrolyte. Previously, these were organic solvents, now they have been replaced by polymers and batteries have become “Lithium polymer”. These polymers are similar to plastic and also burn well. But they don't explode like a bomb! Apparently, the special services produced special batteries in which part of the polymer was replaced with an explosive. At the same time, the functionality of the gadget remains intact. And when heated to a certain temperature, an explosion occurs. You can still believe this.

But the next day (18th) there were media reports that other gadgets, such as telephones, walkie-talkies, and solar panels, began to explode. However, there is no video evidence. I don’t consider a couple of videos where a phone battery burns out in a workshop as evidence. Such videos are not uncommon. People bring their phones for repair, some of them have swollen batteries - out of order. And such batteries periodically ignite on their own all over the planet. And videos of burnt-out cars are not at all a fact that they were caused by phones.

Also in the case of pagers, it can be assumed that a remote signal was sent to detonate. But on the 18th they reported both walkie-talkies and solar panels. After all, you definitely cannot send a signal to a walkie-talkie or solar panel via the Internet or cellular network to activate hidden capabilities. Therefore, the events of the 18th are either an invention of people who decided to disrupt the hype on the topic. Or a ridiculous cover for Hezbolah’s failure.

As a result, we have a batch of modified pagers that were actually bombs and were activated remotely and a bunch of fakes on the 18th.

What is a Li battery and how does it work?

But now the analysis of the question begins - is it even possible to blow up a smartphone remotely?

A lithium battery is a dangerous thing under certain conditions. But in real life, you and I don’t see smartphones or other equipment with lithium batteries breaking down so often with such consequences.

The thing is that on any battery there is a small board called BMC. This board controls the charge and discharge voltage, as well as the current. It may have additional capabilities for temperature control, balancing of cans, recharging cans with low current and other functions. There are even so-called “Smart BMCs” that have the ability to transmit information via Bluetooth or the Internet, for example, to a smartphone. Such things are installed, for example, on electric bicycles to monitor the battery.


Example BMC for one battery.


An example of a BMC for self-assembly of a battery from Li cells.

BMC is essentially a fuse located on the battery. Which does not allow the battery to fail! This is why we do not see constant spontaneous combustion of equipment with lithium batteries.

In theory, this should have been the end of the article. But a spherical hacker cannot sleep peacefully at night in a vacuum... And he is very interested in finding more information. We will do reverse engineering.

The beginning of a real investigation


BMC smartphone battery.

The BMC of a smartphone battery is a very simple device, without firmware or the possibility of external control/influence. In case of emergency situations, excess current / voltage, the BMC simply breaks the contact between the battery and the device. Thus protecting the device. BMC is a safety switch at its core.

If anyone remembers, before, when batteries were removed from smartphones, they had 3 or 4 contacts. The purpose of the two contacts is completely clear. This is a plus and a minus. Why do you need more contacts?

The third contact is a temperature sensor. As a rule, an ordinary thermistor (a resistor that changes its resistance depending on temperature) is soldered between the contact (-) and an additional third contact. Or between two additional contacts.

Using this sensor, the smartphone understands that the battery is overheated and it is worth stopping its use (Safety shutdown of the device) or reducing the load on it.

Thanks to this, modern smartphones with a fast charging function understand how quickly the battery can be charged - so that it does not fail.

BMC is the battery emergency fuse. But not only the BMC board, but the so-called “Power Controller” is responsible for the operation of the battery in a smartphone. At its core, it is a small separate chip on the board that is responsible for powering the entire gadget.


Briefly, its main functions are as follows:

  • Battery status monitoring.
  • Providing protection for the battery from overcharging, deep charging, and various types of damage.
  • Optimizing battery performance.
  • Sending information about the status and operation of the battery to the phone.
  • Battery temperature monitoring.

Why do you need a power controller in your phone?

Thanks to the power controller, smartphone users do not need to monitor the charging process, since this chip completely controls it. First of all, it regulates the required voltage so that it does not exceed its maximum or minimum value (overcharging or deep discharging does not occur).

In addition, the controller regulates the voltage and changes it during charging itself, depending on how discharged or charged the battery is. For example, the process of charging a phone to 80% is much faster than from 80% to 100%.

But the most useful function of the controller during charging is the ability to leave the phone with the charger connected after the charge level has reached 100%. The owner does not need to worry about the phone overheating or the battery exploding. He can leave the device charging overnight as the controller automatically reduces the voltage and activates the recharging phase.

Temperature control

Charging at temperatures that are too high (above 45 degrees) or too low (below 0 degrees) not only reduces battery performance, but is also potentially harmful to battery health. Most controllers have a function for monitoring battery temperature, the task of which is to send data about it to the phone. That, in turn, will either display a corresponding warning on the screen or turn off to prevent damage to the phone and battery.

First guesses

Let's think about how you can overheat a phone battery so that it spontaneously ignites. As we found out earlier, there is a BMC fuse on the battery itself. It is responsible for protection against abnormal voltage and current. But the BMC board itself cannot do anything about the temperature sensor.

Suppose - if you somehow programmatically start influencing the gadget so that it starts to overheat the battery, without exceeding the specified load according to the BMC - in theory it is possible, since the BMC is not responsible for the temperature, but only measures it. This prompts the idea that in this case you still need to influence the smartphone’s charge controller in order to do this.

Let's look at the charge controller in detail. For example, I took the BQ25968 battery charge controller for Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC, Redmi Note 10T 5G.

Link to datasheet - https://www.alldatasheetru.com/datasheet-pdf/view/1286966/TI/BQ25968.html

As you can judge from the physical dimensions of the chip, there is a very large circuit inside.


General connection


Internal general arrangement

 The fun begins next, when considering the full functionality. Fortunately, the datasheets write about this in black and white.


Translation:- The device uses an I2C compatible interface to program and read many parameters. I2C is a two-wire serial interface developed by NXP (formerly Philips Semiconductor, see I2C Bus Specification Version 5, October 2012). The BUS consists of a data line (SDA) and a clock line (SCL) with pull-up structures. When BUS is to the side, the SDA and SCL lines rise high. All I2C compatible devices are connected to the I2C BUS through open drain I/O terminals, SDA and SCL. The host device, usually a microcontroller or digital signal processor, controls the BUS. The master is responsible for generating the SCL signal and device addresses. The BQ25960 also generates specific conditions that indicate START and STOP of data transmission. The slave device receives and/or transmits data on the BUS under the control of the master device. The device operates as a slave and supports the following data transfer modes as defined in the I2C BUS™Specification: standard mode (100 kbit/s) and fast mode (400 kbit/s With). The interface adds flexibility to the battery management solution, allowing most functions to be programmed to new values ​​depending on the immediate application requirements. The I2C circuit is powered by the battery in active battery mode. Battery voltage must remain above VBATUVLO when VIN is missing to maintain proper operation. The data transfer protocol for standard and fast modes is exactly the same; therefore, they are referred to as F/S mode in this document. The device only supports 7-bit addressing. The 7-bit device address is determined by the ADDR pin on the device.

And then we look at the registers themselves:-


We see that there is a register responsible for temperature control. And it has R/W - this means that it can be rewritten. Valid value including 1h = Disable. This means you can programmatically turn off battery temperature control.

It turns out that it is still possible to bypass the protection of the BMC board at the hardware level. Let me remind you that the BMC on a cell phone battery only protects against abnormal voltages and currents. But he doesn’t monitor the temperature! In theory, this is monitored by the battery charge controller, but it can be reprogrammed and the protection can be turned off!

Software part of the question

Now, in order to find out how deep the rabbit hole is, we will need to unearth the software features of the Android OS.

Access rights

And this is where the real “Sedition” begins. When studying Unix-like operating systems in more detail, which includes Android, you first need to understand how the file system is mounted and what access rights are.

In Android, when the device is turned off, there is no single file system on its flash drive as in the usual Windows. Instead, you will see a bunch of RAW images, each of which carries part of the overall file system. When you turn on the gadget, these images are mounted to the root point called Root. It will already contain all the kernel files, the OS itself and all your data in the Data folder.

What users call their OS is actually just a folder ./Data/ It contains all your data, programs, settings, phone book, etc. And what users call “Phone Internal Memory” is actually just one directory at ./Data/Media/0

For example, when you do a full factory reset on your phone, it actually deletes the Data folder.

So, you, as a regular phone user, do not have the right to go beyond the Data folder. Well, no way at all! All your files and programs can only be accessed within the internal contents of the Data folder.

Root access

The words “Root access” refer to special rights for a regular user, which allow him to go beyond the Data folder and interact with other root folders. This is where the name Root comes from - translated as "Root". Root access means that the user can go to the root directory.

Root access itself can be obtained by modifying the phone software. In my profile there are instructions on how to get Root access to Bastyon Mobi. But not all manufacturers provide this opportunity.

And thanks to Root access, I can view all the files on the phone, which is what I’m writing about in this article. Personally, I have been using phones only with Root access for more than 10 years, so I have an idea of ​​how it all works.

But at its core, the OS itself has Root access initially. That is, programs from the ./System folder can completely control the phone.

Search for configuration files

What I love about Android is its openness! Even proprietary software on Android is not at all difficult to read without special programming knowledge. The thing is that this is a Unix-like system, which means the “Everything is a file” rule works. This means that the entire OS consists of text files. But already assembled code is not always text. However, it can still be "Parsed" even on the fly and viewed. The funny thing is that no one is hiding anything inside Android! Everything is written openly! And to use and understand all this, you don’t need to have an academic degree. The Enthusiast level of knowledge is enough.

To do this, I will use my favorite program from Chinese developers MTmanager. By the way, this is the only program that I bought in my life! I paid as much as 20 bucks for a lifetime license. Although almost all functions of the program are available for free. When you first open this program, you might think that this is an ordinary two-window file root manager. But this program can decompile any application, make changes to it and put it back together! Android Studio right in your pocket.

Let's start our search with the simplest. Many enthusiasts know that you can calibrate the battery by deleting the batterystats.bin file located in ./Data/System. This file records the charge and discharge cycles of the battery. Based on this data, Android OS predicts the state of the battery and how long the charge will last. But there are times when incorrect data is written to this file and because of this, the OS turns off the phone ahead of time, because it thinks that the battery is low, or vice versa. The battery is completely drained, but the OS thinks that there is still 20% left. To avoid such situations, you can delete this file, reboot the phone, the system will create it again and start statistics from scratch. Which in theory could help. But this is not exactly what we are looking for.

Further digging through the phone files, in ./System/Flamework/Flamework-res.apk/res/xml - you can find records about battery capacity and processor clock speeds and other settings and data.

And in ./Vendor/Etc you can find a bunch more processor configuration files. By the way, I remember once bloggers raised a hype that some phones, when running “Benchmarkers”, deliberately increase clock frequencies, so, in such phones in this folder you can find “WhiteList” files in which this is written and you can read it all yourself!

It becomes clear that the Android OS has configuration files responsible for setting up the battery, processor and more... In theory, you can make it so that the battery is overheated by an abnormal load and causes a fire.

But everything is not so simple here, because Android 13+ has protection against changing system files. If you try to change at least one file in ./System or ./Vendor, the phone will no longer turn on and will go into BootLoop.

Three Essences of Control

Now we need to understand who can gain access and how.

Let us remember what was written earlier - that the user and all his programs cannot interact with system objects! This means that not one program, not one virus - which the user picks up - cannot do anything with the system. So you need to look in the system itself.

The first entity of phone control is the Android OS itself. Pure Android AOSP itself is a good clean OS. It has few functions, but also no software bookmarks. And this can be checked in the source code, because AOSP is Open Source.

The second entity of control is the phone manufacturers themselves. Such as Samsung, Asus, Xiaomi and others. They take AOSP and overhaul it. They are introducing a huge number of changes and new features. And this is no longer open information. In addition, they add their own programs to the phone, which are unknown what they can do and are located in the system partitions. In fact, they have Root access initially.

The third control entity is Gapps. Google is not at all interested in distributing Android for free. Therefore, almost all phones have a pre-installed Google software package - Gapps. When you first turn on the phone, during its setup, you will be told that Google has the right to install programs at its discretion, and there will also be a point nearby - that even if Bluetooth is turned off, it will still work. And third, Google's license agreement is hundreds of pages long. And until you agree with all of this, you will not be able to turn on your smartphone! And it all works from the ./System folder.

Total

To summarize, we have a bunch of different software in the system folders of the factory phone, which does not know what it does and is closed source. "Hello" in the form of surveillance, remote control and undocumented functions may arrive.

Many users are afraid of viruses and other things. But it is important to understand that nothing happens just like that. Security systems in the modern world are very good. Yes, there are errors in any code that can be exploited by hackers or special services. But as a rule, in 99.9% of cases of hacking of any systems, the user himself is to blame. I downloaded and installed a program downloaded from an unknown site, or opened an archive with a virus, or went to an infected site.

But there are known cases of hacking when the user does not need to do anything at all! An example of such hacker software is "Pegasus" from Israel. But this is a very murky matter; I don’t believe that this is possible without the participation of Google itself. If this software is sold to intelligence agencies around the world, who is stopping Google itself from buying a copy through a front man and closing all the security holes?! This suggests that Google itself is a participant in this...

Or the story of how Israel used AI to carry out bombing attacks, and then it turned out that this AI took information from Google and was processed at Google data centers...

In fact, nothing happens on a regular factory phone without Google's knowledge. A striking example of this is the Sberbank application. When installing it, it will ask for two permissions, to access contacts and to access the internal memory. If access to contacts can be denied, then access to files is required - without this, the Sber application will not work. And when you give this permission, the Sber application will launch the “Antivirus” type every 15 minutes. Scan all your files and don’t know what to do with the scan results.

But when installing Sber on Mobi, you don’t have to give permission to access files, but the application will work. And the most interesting thing is that if you still give access to the files, the antivirus will not start. Miracles! Is it true?

This is an example of how Google gives some apps more access than others. And then we wonder how they listen to us, and then show advertising... And here we don’t need to equate everything with Android itself. Besides it, there are other “Control Entities” on the smartphone.

P.S.

A little about Bastyon Mobi. It is based on Lineage OS. Which in turn is modified by AOSP enthusiasts. It is open source and can be verified by any specialist.

Secondly, each user can get Root access to Mobi and personally view all the files on the phone.

Third, in the Mobi firmware there is only one “Essence of Control” - the OS itself. There are no closed-source programs on the phone, especially in the system sections.

In general, after September 17, you and I live in a new reality. Where there is almost no security and the virtual world intersects with the real one. Apparently BigTech corporations can do much more than I previously thought. And the only way out is to use “Open Software” on all your gadgets. Only this can protect you and your data in our turbulent times.











понеділок, 5 серпня 2024 р.

Czech Republic Initiates Exclusion of Hungary from Schengen: What Does This Mean?

 ### Title:

Czech Republic Initiates Exclusion of Hungary from Schengen: What Does This Mean?


### Introduction:

In a surprising geopolitical move, the Czech Republic has initiated a proposal to exclude Hungary from the Schengen Area. This development has sparked widespread debate and concern across Europe regarding the implications for the region's stability and unity.


### Description:

The Schengen Area, known for its policy of open borders among member states, faces a potential shake-up with the Czech Republic's call to exclude Hungary. This initiative stems from growing concerns about Hungary's adherence to Schengen regulations and broader European Union values.


### Key Issue or Event:

The central issue revolves around Hungary's recent actions, which the Czech Republic and several other EU countries view as inconsistent with the Schengen principles. These actions include stricter border controls and policies perceived as undermining the cohesion of the Schengen Area. The Czech Republic's proposal has intensified discussions on maintaining the integrity and security of the Schengen Zone.


### Analytical Report:

Analysts identify several factors contributing to this unprecedented move:


1. **Political Tensions**: Rising political differences between Hungary and other EU member states have exacerbated tensions within the Schengen Area.

2. **Border Security Concerns**: Hungary's implementation of stringent border controls has raised questions about its commitment to the Schengen Agreement's core principle of open borders.

3. **EU Values and Compliance**: The Czech Republic and other countries argue that Hungary's actions are at odds with the democratic values and legal frameworks upheld by the European Union.


Experts warn that excluding Hungary from the Schengen Area could set a dangerous precedent and potentially lead to further fragmentation within the EU. They recommend diplomatic efforts to resolve the issues while preserving the Schengen Area's fundamental principles.


### Conclusion:

The Czech Republic's initiative to exclude Hungary from the Schengen Area marks a significant moment in European geopolitics. This development underscores the need for member states to adhere to shared values and regulations to maintain the stability and unity of the Schengen Zone. The coming months will be critical as European leaders navigate this complex and sensitive issue.


### Hashtags:

#CzechRepublic, #Hungary, #SchengenArea, #EuropeanUnion, #Geopolitics, #BorderSecurity, #EUValues, #EuropeanIntegration, #Diplomacy


---


Please let me know if there are any additional details or specific aspects you would like included.


Czech Republic, Hungary, Schengen Area, European Union, EU Politics, Border Security, Geopolitics, European Integration, EU Values, Diplomacy, Schengen Agreement, EU News, Europe, Political Tensions, International Relations, European Stability, Open Borders, Schengen Zone, EU Member States, Exclusion from Schengen, Hungary Border Policies, Czech-Hungary Relations, Schengen Regulations, EU Compliance


### Bibliography:


1. Infosec.Pub. "Czech Republic Initiates Exclusion of Hungary from Schengen: What Does This Mean?" Accessed August 5, 2024. [Infosec.Pub Article](https://infosec.pub/post/15817093).


2. European Commission. "Schengen Area." Accessed August 5, 2024. [European Commission](https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/policies/schengen-borders-and-visa/schengen-area_en).


3. Council of the European Union. "Schengen Borders Code." Accessed August 5, 2024. [Council of the European Union](https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/schengen-borders-code/).


4. Euronews. "Hungary's Border Policies and Schengen Compliance." Accessed August 5, 2024. [Euronews](https://www.euronews.com).


5. Reuters. "Czech Republic's Proposal and EU Reactions." Accessed August 5, 2024. [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com).


### Conclusion:


The Czech Republic's move to propose the exclusion of Hungary from the Schengen Area highlights the complexities and challenges facing the European Union. This action underscores the importance of adherence to shared values and regulations within the EU. It also brings to the forefront the ongoing political tensions and differing approaches to border security among member states. As the EU navigates this sensitive issue, the outcome will have significant implications for the integrity and future of the Schengen Zone.


### Forecast:


Looking ahead, the EU will need to engage in careful diplomatic efforts to address the concerns raised by the Czech Republic while ensuring that Hungary's policies align with Schengen principles. The resolution of this issue will likely involve negotiations and possible reforms to strengthen the cohesion and security of the Schengen Area. The EU's ability to manage this situation effectively will be crucial in maintaining unity and stability within the region. In the short term, we can expect increased political dialogue and possible temporary measures to address immediate concerns. In the long term, the EU may need to consider structural changes to ensure compliance and prevent similar issues in the future.


### Hashtags for YouTube (up to 500 characters):

Czech Republic, Hungary, Schengen Area, European Union, EU Politics, Border Security, Geopolitics, European Integration, EU Values, Diplomacy, Schengen Agreement, EU News, Europe, Political Tensions, International Relations, European Stability, Open Borders, Schengen Zone, EU Member States, Exclusion from Schengen, Hungary Border Policies, Czech-Hungary Relations, Schengen Regulations, EU Compliance

четвер, 9 травня 2024 р.

How to delete a file that cannot be deleted - 3 ways

 

How to delete a file that cannot be deleted - 3 ways

remontka.pro
6 min
A common problem that novice users encounter is that a file or folder is not deleted (due to some file) that needs to be deleted. In this case, the system writes that the file is occupied by another process or the action cannot be performed because this file is open in Program_Name or that permission needs to be requested from someone. This can be encountered in any version of the OS - Windows 7, 8, Windows 10 or XP.

In fact, there are several ways to delete such files, each of which will be discussed here. Let's see how to delete a file that won't delete without using third-party tools, and then I'll describe how to delete busy files using LiveCD and the free Unlocker program. I note that deleting such files is not always safe. Be careful that it is not a system file (especially when you are told that you need permission from TrustedInstaller). See also: How to delete a file or folder if it says Element not found (could not find this element) .

Note: If the file is not being deleted because it is not in use, but with a message saying that access is denied and you need permission to perform this operation or need to request permission from the owner, then use this guide: How to take ownership of a file and folder in Windows  or Request permission from TrustedInstaller (also suitable for the case when you need to request permission from Administrators).

Also, if the files pagefile.sys and swapfile.sys, hiberfil.sys are not deleted, then the methods below will not help. You will find the instructions about the Windows Page File  (the first two files) or about disabling hibernation useful. Likewise, a separate article on how to delete the Windows.old folder may be useful .

Deleting a file without additional programs

The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.

As a rule, if a file is not deleted, then in the message you will see which process is occupied by it - it could be explorer.exe or some other problem. It is logical to assume that in order to delete it, you need to make sure that the file is “not busy”.

This is easy to do - launch the task manager:

  • In Windows 7 and XP you can access it by Ctrl + Alt + Del.
  • In Windows 8 and Windows 10, you can press the Windows key + X and select Task Manager.
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.

Find the process that is using the file you want to delete and kill the task. Delete the file. If the file is occupied by the explorer.exe process, then before canceling the task in the task manager, run the command line as an administrator and, after canceling the task, use the command del full_path_to_file in the command line to delete it.

To return to the standard desktop view after this, you need to run explorer.exe again; to do this, in the task manager, select “File” - “New task” - “explorer.exe”.

Learn more about Windows Task Manager

Removing a locked file using a bootable USB flash drive or disk

Another way to delete such a file is to boot from any LiveCD drive, system recovery disk, or Windows bootable USB flash drive. When using LiveCD in any of its variants, you can use either the standard Windows graphical interface (for example, in BartPE) and Linux (Ubuntu), or command line tools. Please note that when booting from such a drive, the computer's hard drives may appear under different letters. To ensure that you are deleting a file from the correct drive, you can use the dir c: command (this example will display a list of folders on the C drive).

When using a bootable USB flash drive or installation disk for Windows 7 and Windows 8, at any time during installation (after the language selection window has already loaded and in the following steps), press Shift + F10 to enter the command line. You can also select "System Restore", a link to which is also present in the installation program. Also, as in the previous case, pay attention to possible changes in drive letters.

Using DeadLock to Unlock and Delete Files

Since the Unlocker program discussed below, even from the official website, has recently (2016) begun to install various unwanted programs and is blocked by browsers and antiviruses, I propose to consider an alternative - DeadLock, which also allows you to unlock and delete files from your computer (it also promises to change the owner, but in it didn't work in my tests).
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.
So, if when deleting a file you see a message that the action cannot be performed because the file is open in some program, then using DeadLock in the File menu you can add this file to the list, and then, using the right click - unlock it (Unlock) and remove it (Remove). You can also move the file.
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.
The file is already in use. Close the file and try again.
The program, although in English (perhaps a Russian translation will appear soon), is very easy to use. The disadvantage (and for some, perhaps an advantage) is that, unlike Unlocker, it does not add the action of unlocking a file to the Explorer context menu. You can download DeadLock from the official website  http://codedead.com/?page_id=822

Free Unlocker to unlock files that won't be deleted

The Unlocker program is probably the most popular way to delete files that are used by a particular process. The reasons for this are simple: it is free, it does its job properly, and in general, it works. You can download Unlocker for free on the official website of the developer http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/  (the site has recently been identified as malicious).

Using the program is very simple - after installation, just right-click on the file that is not being deleted and select “Unlocker” from the context menu. If you are using the portable version of the program, which is also available for download, launch the program and a window will open to select the file or folder you want to delete.

The essence of the program is the same as in the first described method - unloading from memory the processes that are occupied by the file. The main advantages over the first method are that using the Unlocker program it is easier to delete a file and, moreover, it can find and terminate a process that is hidden from the eyes of users, that is, not viewable through the task manager.

Update 2017: Another method, judging by the reviews, works successfully, was proposed in the comments by the author Tokha IT specialist: install and open the 7-Zip archiver (free, it also works as a file manager) and rename the file in it, which is not deleted. After this, the removal is successful.

Why is the file or folder not being deleted?

Some background information from the Microsoft site if anyone is interested. Although, the information is quite scarce. May also be useful: How to clean your disk of unnecessary files .

What may be preventing you from deleting a file or folder?

If you don't have the necessary system rights to change a file or folder, you can't delete it. If you didn't create the file, then chances are you can't delete it. The reason may also be settings made by the computer administrator.

Also, a file or folder containing it cannot be deleted if the file is currently open in the program. You can try closing all programs and try again.

Why when I try to delete a file does Windows say the file is in use?

This error message means that the file is being used by the program. Thus, you need to find the program that uses it and either close the file in it, if it is, for example, a document, or close the program itself. Also, if you are working online, the file may be currently in use by another user.

After deleting all files, an empty folder remains

In this case, try closing all open programs or restarting the computer, and then deleting the folder.