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Question

disable file locking

Nov 16, 2012 1:51AM PST

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Sort of.
Nov 16, 2012 2:01AM PST

If I run XP on FAT32, possible since it's locks are as tight.

BTW, it's rare to need this. We also have a nice tool to unlock files. It's called UNLOCKER.

Care to share why this is needed? It's very dangerous if you did it and I would not expect this system to run for more than a few weeks until it failed.
Bob

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what about ntfs
Nov 16, 2012 3:09AM PST

Why would the system not run after a few weeks? Would you care to elaborate; I am unwilling to accept unless I know the reason(s). NTFS is what I'm after

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The short version.
Nov 16, 2012 3:32AM PST

The file locking is there to stop issues with partial file writes, etc. Imagine if I have a file open and I'm writing at location 42. Now you replace the file and because of no locks I write my content and you now have a bum file.

It won't be long till you have so many bum files and one may be critical.

-> Tell more, what's up.
Bob

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system files
Nov 16, 2012 6:39AM PST

The only file that this is dangerous with is the registry. System files are pretty stagnant. I can keep registry file backups, no prob.

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Then go right ahead.
Nov 16, 2012 6:50AM PST

Still can't wrap my head around what's the goal.

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Actually it is designed ...
Nov 17, 2012 8:41AM PST

as Bob indicated, to prevent one user from destroying or invalidating changes by another user or system process. Since Windows works with a paging file it is quite possible for one process to corrupt a system file opened by another process. That is also the reason that you couldn't expect the system to run well for very long and why Microsoft came up with System Restore for the system files.

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Back to a discussion on how to disable file locking
Nov 18, 2012 10:02PM PST

Please I don't want to hear about why this is a bad idea any more. I just want to know how to turn off file locking. That is all.

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Re: turn file locking off
Nov 18, 2012 10:11PM PST

In my post below ( 11/18/12 2:26 AM ) I already told you that at isn't possible. That is all.

Kees

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OK but ...
Nov 19, 2012 12:00PM PST

you will want to understand what you are doing.

This link tells you how to disable File and record locking in Windows XP Pro (you will need to locate the portion that applies to XP Pro) -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296264

This link will help you understand the different levels of Opportunistic locking -
http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/locking.html#id2615926

The second link will also explain why the registry setting will not work for files locked by a specific application rather than the file system.

Have fun!

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Answer
Re: file locking
Nov 16, 2012 3:13AM PST

Why do you want this? What's the purpose you want to reach? What's going wrong now?

Kees

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nothing wrong
Nov 17, 2012 11:41AM PST

I just like to tweak and mess with systems, and I want to know how to do this. That is all.

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We can tweak and mess with XP without any issue.
Nov 17, 2012 12:37PM PST

You can turn off SFP and drop any file you want anywhere. It's still muddy what is up but I'm getting the idea you want to swap system protected files but didn't write that or tell you know about SFP.
Bob

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Nope
Nov 17, 2012 1:04PM PST

I want to turn off file locking. Has nothing to do with SFP. That has been off on my system for almost a decade. I want to turn off file locking. That is all.

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Remember.
Nov 17, 2012 1:22PM PST

We have unlocker to unlock a locked file. It's a shame that after all these posts we can't read what you are trying to do. I'm not asking about file locking, I'm asking exactly what file you want to unlock that we can't use unlocker on.
Bob

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Remember
Nov 17, 2012 3:06PM PST

I want to turn off file locking. That is all. I already have unlocker and know how to use it. How to keep locks from ever forming? I want to turn off file locking. That is all. You are trying to make things complicated: don't.

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Re: turn off file locking
Nov 17, 2012 6:26PM PST

Unless you have the source code of Windows XP, you can't do that.

But the source code of all Linux distros is freely available. So how about a nice custom made Linux-without-file-locks to satisfy your needs?

Kees

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OK, let's find a Windows with source.
Nov 18, 2012 1:49AM PST

That will be the ReactOS.

To keep locks from forming we change our apps to not do that. I write apps so if I get a request to not lock a file, I can do that if it makes sense.

As it's far too dangerous to stop all file locking, I will never reveal anything about that here. I can't help folk just off the virtual cliff.
Bob