Handle (Process Utility)
lastmod 2026-11-10created 2014-12-102 edits
Handle is a command-line utility included in Windows Sysinternals that shows which processes have open handles to kernel objects such as files, directories, registry keys, and events. Given part of a file name as an argument, it finds the processes holding that file, so it is used to track down the cause when something cannot be deleted or unmounted because it is "in use by another program", and the -c option can forcibly close a specific handle. To see the same information in a GUI, use the handle search feature of Process Explorer.