Problem: I had a huge TIF image file and was not able to overwrite or rename or delete it.

Solution: Open the command line as an administrator, stop Windows explorer, delete the file from the command line (for more details, see below).

I ran into an interesting problem today. I was playing around editing photo in GIMP with my new graphic tablet. Once I was satisfied with the result, I exported the image into TIF file. GIMP managed to exported the file but it was a 1.8GB file!

I was surprised with the file size so I checked why is the file so large. Then, I realized that I forgot to uncheck the "Save layers" option.

So I exported again the file, this time I uncheck the "Save layers" option but GIMP could not overwrite the image. I tried to rename it, delete it with no success (including Shift + Del and from the command line).

I found the solution online after hours of search and this is what I did:

Open the folder with the huge stubborn file and copy its path (select the file -> click the Home tab -> click copy path)

Open command line as an administrator: Windows Key -> type in CMD -> click Run as an administrator on the right panel

This is the important, crucial step, open task manager: Ctr + Alt + Del -> click Task Manager -> on the Process tab look for Windows Explorer task -> Right click -> click End task

!! You will have an empty screen with only the command line window but DO NOT PANIC, we will fix that later !!

Go to the Command line window and type in del and paste the file path. For example

del D:\Pictures\bigTIFF\big.tif

if the path contains space you will have to put the path in a " " like this

del "D:\Pictures\bigTIFF\big.tif"

Press enter and Horrah the file is gone!

Now lets fix the empty screen

Open task manager (Ctr + Alt + Del) if it is not open yet.

Click File -> Run new task

Type in explorer.exe

Click OK and voila!

So good luck and I hope this post help you.