"illegal" in the sense, it's against Windows file naming convention.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
The Winhelponline Blog: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog
Windows® Troubleshooting: http://www.winhelponline.com


"Unknown" wrote in message
...
Why do you say illegal? I have it on my system.
"John John (MVP)" wrote in message
...
laredotornado wrote:

Hi,

I'm running WinXP and trying to delete a file from my system. But
when I right click and select "Delete" I get the error message:

Cannot delete .metadata\:Access is denied
Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is
not currently in use.

I have verified that the file is not write-protected and the disk is
not full. But I can't figure out what process is using the file in
question. Any ideas how to figure this out?

It's an illegal file name. At a Command Prompt try using the \\.\ name
check bypass:

DEL \\.\drive letter:\path\file name

John