There’s a newer iteration of this function here.

$targetFile='C:\Users\kimconnect\Desktop\testfile.csv'

function killPidLockedFile($filename){
    
    if (!(Get-Command handle.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
        if (!(Get-Command choco.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
        [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
        Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))    
        }
    choco install sysinternals -y --ignore-checksums -y
    }

    function findPidOfFile{
	        param($handles,$filename)
            $lockingPids=@();
            $lastKnownPid="";
	        foreach ($line in $handles) {
                $lastKnownPid=.{
                    [void]($line -match "pid:\s(.*)\s");
                    if ($matches[1]){return $matches[1]}
                    }
		        if ($line -like "*$filename*") {
			        return $lastKnownPid;
                    }
	             }
            }

    $file=$(New-Object System.IO.FileInfo $filename)
    try{
        $fileHandle = $file.Open([System.IO.FileMode]::Open, [System.IO.FileAccess]::ReadWrite, [System.IO.FileShare]::None)
        $fileHandle.Close() # if file handle is open, it means that file is not locked
        }catch{
            $handles = handle.exe;
            if (!($handles)){
                if (!(Get-Command choco.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
                    Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))};
                choco install sysinternals -y;
                $handles = handle;
                }
            $lockingPids=findPidLockedFile $handles $filename;
            if ($lockingPids){
                write-host "Now killing procees ID: $lockingPids";
                $lockingPids|%{taskkill /F /PID $_}
                }else{
                    write-host "$filename is currently as NOT being locked";
                    }
        }
}

killPidLockedFile $targetFile

Sample Output:

Now killing procees ID: 61808
SUCCESS: The process with PID 61808 has been terminated.

Deprecated function:

# Find-Processes-Of-Locked-Files.ps1

$lockedFile="C:\temp\yamama.ost"

# First, gather all system handles
$handles = handle.exe;
if (!($handles)){
    if (!(Get-Command choco.exe -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
        Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))};
    choco install sysinternals -y;
    $handles = handle;
    }

# Requires handle.exe from Systernals. returns pid
function findPidLockedFile{
	param($lockedFile)
	$scrollingPid="";
    $lockingPids=@(); 
	foreach ($line in $handles) {
		 if ($line -like "*pid:*") {$scrollingPid=$line}
		if ($line -like "*$lockedFile*") {
			#[void]($scrollingPid -match "(.*)\spid:");
			[void]($scrollingPid -match "pid:\s(.*)\s");
			$lockingPids+=,$matches[1];
            }
	     }
    return $lockingPids|get-unique
}

$lockingPids=findPidLockedFile $lockedFile;
write-host "Here are the Pids for you to kill:`r`n$lockingPids"
Categories: