Why does it build unusable EXE files?

[WSinc]

Sometimes I get "Cannot open *.exe" - whatever the project name is.

And then a rebuild doesn't get rid of it, and I can't build another EXE to replace it.

In fact, I cannot move, delete or rename it either.

All this is occurring when I an the OWNER of the file, and the ADMINSTRATOR.

The only way to get rid of it is to reboot in SAFE mode and use the COMMAND prompt.

Why does this happen? Is there a way to find out if any other processes are trying to attach it?

How do I find those process names?

BTW, I made sure my Spyware Doctor was disabled, it didn't make any difference.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

What is the path to the project folder? Is it under Program Files? If so, Windows blocks you from doing this. Put the project folder somewhere else.

The other time I've seen this is when I still had the program open from a previous run.

[WSinc]

I will try it. The thing is that VS 2008 wants to put ALL the projects under "My Documents" then under that

the folder is "Visual Studio 2008," then "Projects" , etc. The EXE is created in the DEBUG folder, along

with the OBJ files.

So it doesn't appear that it's under "Program Files" if I understand what you are saying.

That's a different hierarchy.

It appears that some mysterious process is attaching the EXE files, but when I look at the

task manager, no such process appears anywhere, including the previously run program.

Trying to delete it gets nowhere, even though I am the one that created the EXE to start with.

It tells me: "Access denied." Why would there be an issue of file ownership?

Is there a way to open another subfolder for all the OBJ and generated files besides DEBUG?

That would bypass the problem, at least temporarily, and avoid my forcing a power down.

Do you do any remote assist so you can look at this kind of thing first hand?

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Under My Documents would be fine.

You can change the Intermediate Directory to be whatever you want in the project properties. Or just create a new configuration and it will automatically create a new folder for you. (Build > Configuration Manager > New.)

Yes, we can do remote assist if that seems appropriate. You would get Access Denied if some other process had the file opened.

You might want to try running Process Monitor to see if you can identify the culprit,

[dajum]

I had a similar problem. It appeared to me to be VS owning the files I was trying to delete. Once I closed VS, waited a minute or two and then tried to delete my file it worked.

Dave