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Windows XP and DOS - Display Files to be Moved or Deleted on Next Reboot

SUMMARY: Display a list of files scheduled for moving or deletion when you reboot your Windows XP system.

While Windows XP is running, it may be difficult or impossible to move or delete certain files from your system due to file locking. In these cases, applications can schedule files to be manipulated as soon as the system reboots before other applications start. Some examples:

* Setup applications may need to change files that are currently in use. You may notice this occurring when setup applications request you to reboot the machine before running the newly-installed program.

* Some applications may want to clean up temporary or log files every time they restart. One way to do this is to schedule such files to be removed every time Windows boots.

To see which files are queued for moving or removal, you can use a DOS command called pendmoves provided by the Sysinternals website (part of Microsoft TechNet). Simply download the PendMoves.zip file and unzip the executables to your main Windows directory. Then execute the command as follows:

C:\>pendmoves

For example, if you install Adobe Acrobat Reader and do not reboot the system, the following entries may be present:

Source: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
Target: DELETE

Source: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\TBM58D.tmp
Target: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll

Source: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AdobeUpdater.rbt
Target: DELETE

The pendmoves command also displays the latest time that an application scheduled a pending move or deletion.

Sysinternals PendMoves - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ FileAndDisk/pendmoves.mspx