Editing File locking (section)

== Unlocker software ==
An unlocker is a utility used to determine what process is locking a file, and displays a list of processes as well as choices on what to do with the process (kill task, unlock, etc.) along with a list of file options such as delete or rename. Their purpose is to remove improper or stale file locks, which often arise from anomalous situations, such as crashed or hung processes, that lead to file locks that persist despite the owning process having died already. On some Unix-like systems, utilities such as <code>fstat</code> and <code>lockf</code> can be used to inspect the state of file locks by process, by filename, or both.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

On Windows systems, if a file is locked, it's possible to schedule its moving or deletion to be performed on the next reboot. This approach is typically used by installers to replace locked system files.