[diablo75]

A co-worker of mine works with Autocad, and they have their office setup with 3 laptops. One functions as a server (with Windows Server, not sure of the exact version but it is "Windows Server") and the other two are clients (running XP). One of the two drafters left for leave just a day before the other returned from vacation, and accidentally left one of the laptops logged in, but the account was locked. And we're assuming he had a file open on that laptop which was stored from the server. When the other guy got back from vacation, he found that his laptop was the one the other user accidentally left running and had no choice but to force it to power down (hold the power button) to get it unlocked.

Now that he's logged into his account, he can access the shared files from the server, but the files he needs to edit are read-only, and he is told that they are in use by another user (who we know is not there right now).

Also, the user who is here now has admin rights to the server. That being the case, can he release the hold on the files in question manually through the server laptop? Is so, how can this be done?

[Squashman]

Did you try just pulling the network cable out of their computers. Worth a shot. It shouldn't see the file as in use then.

Any administrator should be able to login to the computer which will force a logoff.
You could also remotely shutdown or logoff the computer using PSTools.

[jsalh]

Go to Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Connect to the server (if not already on the server) - select Shared folders then Open Files. Find the open file(s), highlight them, using the right mouse button select "Close Files" from the pop up menu. This should be the case for Server 2000 & 2003. 2008 is similar but the option is in the server management snap-in.

[Squashman]

Not sure if the openfiles cmd will help or not.

H:\>openfiles /?

OPENFILES /parameter [arguments]

Description:
Enables an administrator to list or disconnect files and folders
that have been opened on a system.

Parameter List:
/Disconnect Disconnects one or more open files.

/Query Displays files opened locally or from shared folders.

/Local Enables / Disables the display of local open files.
Note: Enabling this flag adds performance overhead.

Examples:
OPENFILES /Disconnect /?
OPENFILES /Query /?
OPENFILES /Local /?