I use the free version of Revo and it appears as though file deletion isn't that difficult although I'm not certain it will delete your Zombie file. It doesn't take much effort to test though.
Tools\Options\Junk File Cleaner\Add the filename and extension to the general tab\un-click ignore files accessed in the last 24 hours. Scan and delete.
Certainly was quick and easy for me to identify and delete my test file.
Even PowerRun cannot delete the file, so I think no app can delete it. Hopefully, I am wrong.
Long shot, but maybe these 2 commands and a reboot. Clear the file system a bit.
fsutil resource setautoreset true c:\
fsutil usn deletejournal /d /n c:
@W10 Tweaker The Pro version (4.2.3) is slightly different: It has something called "Unrecoverable Delete" which does essentially the same thing: It gives you an Explorer Window where you can select the offending item and then (supposedly) delete it.
If I select the FILE here, it tells me "file not found". If I select the FOLDER that contains the file, I first get prompted ("are you sure you want to permanently delete file "C:\BigLongHierarchyWithLotsOfLevels"?) and when I confirm that, it just goes away and does absolutely nothing: It does NOT delete the folder but it also does not issue an error message. So: Nice, but no cigar.
@Try3 I managed to set up the administrator password and maneuver my way to the problem file. I then tried to "Wipe" that file (I guess that's Linux terminology for "Delete" or "Erase") but it tells me, it's a"read-only file system". Digging around a bit further, I found out, the file isn't a file at all but rather a "link to symbolic link (inode /symlink)" and the link target is an "unsupported reparse point". Maybe that makes sense to you but I don't know how to kill such a "Pointer to nowhere". Oh yeah: It looks like I do have read and write access to that link.
Right click that symbolic link ,properties, and see you get something like this. It's an example. Do you see the link properties with the paths?
Latest News: The question has now become academic. The computer this problem occurred on, belongs to a buddy of mine and I did some updates and upgrades for him when I stumbled across this problem.
I wanted to give the computer back to him as clean as possible but he decided the problem wasn't severe enough to leave the computer with me and he came and picked it up. So, since I no longer have that computer, I can no longer try out the various solutions you have suggested. Thank you very much to all of you for trying to help!
I will not be marking this question as "solved" since I never was able to put a stake through the heart of this particular Zombie but it really isn't harming anyone so it can hang around on that computer for now.
If anyone comes across a utility that can remove a "link to symbolic link (inode /symlink)" where the link target is an "unsupported reparse point" I would still be interested in hearing about it.
The Command Prompt in the Advanced Recovery Environment has always worked on anything that I couldn't delete.
Word of caution though, you have to type dir first in the Recovery Environment in order to get the correct location of the OS and file path to the bad file. Since it is the Recovery Environment, the drives are all reassigned a different drive letter in the off-line environment.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this.
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