VC fatal error LNK1168 cannot open filename exe for writing

Question

Suddenly  my Visual Studio Express 2010 C   stopped rebuilding my project  When I first hit F7 the project builds and runs fine  heck  it s a hello world example   Then I make some changes and hit F7 again  then I get  1 gt LINK   fatal error LNK1168  cannot open C  Users username Documents Visual Studio 2010 Projects console Debug console exe for writing   lt br gt  lt br gt   Now the funny thing comes   The app is not running and it s not shown in task manager  Going into the project directory and trying to remove it with hands comes with success  but the file APPEARS AGAIN FROM NOWHERE  The system restore is disabled  I also tried to take the ownership of the whole damn drive  Every time I delete the file it recreates itself again but sometimes it stops doing that  If I delete the file  and it recreates after that   and then I start sysinternals procmon then the file dissapears  If I start procmon before - then the file keeps appearing after delete like always   OS  W7 SP1 64-bit  with latest updates Any ideas  please

User · Answer

The Reason is that your previous build is still running in the background  I solve this problem by following these steps   Open Task Manager Goto Details Tab Find Your Application End Task it by right clicking on it Done

User · Answer

Start your program as an administrator  The program can t rewrite your files cause your files are in a protected location on your hard drive

User · Answer

I also had this same issue  My console window was no longer open  but I was able to see my application running by going to processes within task manager  The process name was the name of my application  Once I ended the process I was able to build and compile my code with no issues

User · Answer

well  I actually just saved and closed the project and restarted VS Express 2013 in windows 8 and that sorted my problem

User · Answer

I know this is an old question but thought I d share how I resolved the issue   If you re using Visual Studio and this error occurs  you can try to attach to process  CTRL ALT P  and find the   program  exe  process  When you try to attach to it  an error will display stating that it failed to attach which removes the process from  running   even though it s not     You ll also be able to delete the  program  exe from your Debug folder   Hope this helps someone

User · Answer

FINALLY THE BEST WAY WORKED PERFECTLY FOR ME None of the solutions in this page worked for me EXCEPT THE FOLLOWING Below the comment sections of the second answer  try the following    Adding to my above comment  Task Manager does not display the filename exe process but Resource Monitor does  so I m able to kill it from there which solves the issue without having to reboot      A   Jun 19  19 at 21 23

User · Answer

I ve encountered this problem when the build is abruptly closed before it is loaded  No process would show up in the Task Manager  but if you navigate to the executable generated in the project folder and try to delete it  Windows claims that the application is in use   If not  just delete the file and rebuild  which generates a new executable  In Windows Visual Studio 2019   the file is located in this directory by default   USERPROFILE  source repos ProjectFolderName Debug  To end the allegedly running process  open the command prompt and type in the following command  taskkill  F  IM ApplicationName exe  This forces any running instance to be terminated  Rebuild and execute

User · Answer

Enable    Application Experience    service   Launch a console window and type net start AeLookupSvc   http   support microsoft com kb 902196

User · Answer

The problem is probably that you forgot to close the program and that you instead have the program running in the background     Find the console window where the exe file program is running  and close it by clicking the X in the upper right corner   Then try to recompile the program   In my case this solved the problem     I know this posting is old  but I am answering for the other people like me who find this through the search engines

User · Answer

This can also be a problem from the improper use of functions like FindNextFile when a FindClose is never executed  The process of the built file is terminated  and the build itself can be deleted  but LNK1168 will prevent a rebuild because of the open handle  This can create a handle leak in Explorer which can be addressed by terminating and restarting Explorer  but in many cases an immediate reboot is necessary

User · Answer

Restarting Visual Studio solved the problem for me

User · Answer

In my case  cleaning and rebuilding the project resolved the problem

[c++] VC++ fatal error LNK1168: cannot open filename.exe for writing

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