I have an exe file (mirc616.exe installer file) in my desktop that I can't delete no matter what I try. Windows XP always claims "Cannot delete mirc616: It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again." Now I know for a fact that this is not true. I have checked every process from the process list and also tried to remove the file in safe mode and still the same error message.
I think the filesystem has been corrupted. I suspect that some program has left a flag on after which the OS never removed the flag (maybe power shortage at the wrong time or something similar). So if you have any idea how to remove this annoying file please give me an advice.

This free utility may do the trick: http://www.snapfiles.com/get/moveonboot.html
such stubborn files can only be deleted before Windows loads. In the old days, When Windows used DOS, you could simply boot into DOS and use the 'DEL' command. With XP there is no DOS so you can't do that. 'MoveOnBoot' allows you to 'tag' the file for deletion at the next boot. When you've installed it, right-click the stubborn file and select 'Delete at next boot'. Then re-boot. Hope it works for you.

Get process explorer from sysinternals.com then do a search on the handle "mirc616.exe" and see which process Windows thinks has a hold on it. Maybe it's a stupid virus scanner thats hung up on this file.

Good Luck.

Many thanks pip22 and devster too. The "MoveOnBoot" worked beautifully and removed the irritating file. So thanks pip22!

Before that I tried the process explorer devster recommended and found out that there really wasn't any file handle from any process, except one from explorer which I forced to close and even after that the same error occurred. But anyway the tool is excellent and I liked to discover the site with so many interesting system tools. Thanks.