Name: LockSmith
Author: Swatto

“The action can’t be completed because the file is open in another program” — and no hint of which program. LockSmith lists the files held open over SMB on your machine and lets you close the session behind them. It’s Rust and egui, so it starts in half a second with no WebView2 or browser runtime, which matters when you’re chasing a stuck lock.

What it does

Lists files currently opened through Windows file sharing APIs.
Filters by file name, path, or username.
Sorts columns.
Supports multi-select with Ctrl+Click and Shift+Click.
Releases selected locks with confirmation.
Supports light and dark themes.
Runs fully offline with no telemetry.

Requirements

Windows 10 or Windows 11.
Administrator privileges.
Rust only if building from source.

LockSmith uses Windows network file APIs such as NetFileEnum and NetFileClose, which require elevation.

Important safety warning

Releasing a file lock forcibly closes a handle owned by another process. This can cause:

unsaved data loss
application crashes
file corruption if a write is interrupted

Use LockSmith only when normal methods have failed, such as closing the owning application, waiting for a copy to finish, or restarting a stuck process.

Install

Download the latest release from:

https://github.com/Swatto86/LockSmith/releases

Run the executable as Administrator.

Basic workflow

Right-click locksmith.exe and choose Run as administrator.
Review the list of open files.
Use search to filter by file name, path, or user.
Select one or more rows.
Click Release Selected Lock(s) or press Delete.
Confirm the action.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
F5	Refresh file list
Delete	Release selected locks
Ctrl+A	Select all visible files
Ctrl+Click	Toggle row selection
Shift+Click	Select a range
Double-click	Release a single lock with confirmation

Known limitations

Windows only.
Administrator required.
The underlying Windows APIs focus on files opened through SMB/network shares hosted by the machine. Local-only handles may not appear.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Swatto86/LockSmith.git
cd locksmith\src
cargo build --release

Run tests and checks:

cargo test
cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy

Troubleshooting

Access denied

Run as Administrator.

No files are shown

This can be normal if no files are currently open via network shares, the Server service is not running, or there are no active shares on the machine.

Releasing a lock did not fix the problem

Another process may immediately reopen the file, or the lock may be a local handle not visible through the network file API. Use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, or Sysinternals tools for deeper local-handle cases.

LockSmith

Under the hood

Enumerates locks via NetFileEnum

Force-closes with NetFileClose

Pure Rust egui, no runtime