Windows 7: issues with copy/move/delete files
 

I have a very strange issue on my main pc.
So, this happens a lot lately. When I delete a file it takes a few minutes before the file is actually gone. I can still see the file as well as other applications (like Visual Studio, which is very annoying because it prevents me from building applications or Steam which says 'steam.exe was deleted, but the file is still there' ), but I cannot access or open the file.
A similar issue exists when moving files. Cut and paste work perfectly, but I have to manually refresh both folders to verify that all files are moved correctly. There's also no dialog which keeps me informed on the movement progress.

Has anyone had any similar issues with Vista or 7 ?

Ps. I'm using the Home Premium version with Avast 4.7 and no other spyware app in the background and indexing is disabled on the drive (except for the start menu there's also no other location that is indexed). I'm just mentioning this because these are often refered to as problems when you can't delete a file at all (because it is in use). It's a 1,5Tb HDD with two partition, so no SSD.

There is an issue with Avast and Steam :

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...9828-SFLZ-9289

Steam has always worked perfectly with Avast. Disabling Avast doesn't fix the problem either.

Have you moved user folders around, such as the desktop or my docs folders?

Tried running CHDSK on next boot for both partitions? Tried reseting your Folder Options back to defaults?

Bad, corrupted, or invalid files can cause Explorer to do this as well. Even unusual file system structures on networked drives, burned discs, or USB drives.

I experience this issue occasionally on Win 7, but a reboot always fixes it for me. Back on Vista it was an everyday problem, but also had it under XP as well...

Today I noticed that this problem was more or less limited to executables. A quick search on the internet revealed that the problem was related to the Application Experience Service being disabled.
Enabling this service resolved the problem, Steam update works perfecly again, no more "the file is still there after deletion" errors :) .
There's still a delay on the copy/move operations, but hey, at least I can delete .exe files now :D