Closed Bug 1018673 Opened 10 years ago Closed 7 years ago

When update cannot be installed, try to find what process keeps file locked

Categories

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Product:
Toolkit
Component:
Application Update
Platform:
x86_64
Windows 7
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: syskin2, Unassigned)

References

Details

Every day when my Nightly updates I keep getting "update cannot be installed" modal dialogue window. It's not a very helpful window.

Using a tool called "Unlocker" I was able to quickly zoom in on the culprit: steam.exe is keeping firefox.exe open and locked. I knew how to do it, and now I know I need to close Steam first, but Firefox target audience is left in the dark and with annoying popups forever and ever.

Obviously Steam is to blame, but assigning blame is not that helpful.

Suggestion: could updater do whatever Unlocker does, and point the finger at the offending process? Not only users get a clue what to do but maybe even Valve fixes their Steam/VAC/whatever the problem is.
We get very few reports of this happening for a long time now that we move files that are in use out of the way so this would be very much an edge case. With this not being an issue for so long please file a bug with steam and have them not lock Firefox files. Since the vast majority of other apps don't lock Firefox files I don't see any reason why Steam actually needs to.
BTW: I'm more than willing to help guide Steam with doing the right thing. I also just verified that I was able to update with a second instance of Firefox running which shows that Steam must be locking Firefox files which they need to just stop doing and really shouldn't be doing in the first place as every other app I know of doesn't.
I agree there are very few reports of this (bug 807560 is the only obvious one in bugzilla, and it might be caused by something else than locked files).

I can try contacting Valve but I'm afraid I'll just hit the "switch your computer on and off" response like I usually do... wish me luck lol.
Let them know that I can discuss this with them as well.
OK, to file a Steam bug I need to find reliable steps to reproduce, which so far I'm unable to. It might involve playing VAC-secured game for long enough. Whatever it is, I do it most days.
I'll keep an eye on the file in an attempt to find the details.

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In unrelated news, if Mozilla Updater ever wanted to implement my suggestion after all, apparently on Vista-and-up there's a trivial way of achieving this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb775867.aspx
Closing old bugs as incomplete. If this is still an issue please file a new bug.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
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