The Action Can’t Be Completed Because The File Is Open In COM Surrogate In Windows 10

Fix: The File Is Open In COM Surrogate In Windows 10/8/7

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This article will show you how to fix “The action can’t be completed because the file is open in COM Surrogate“ error when you trying to change files in Windows 10.

In some cases, while running some files, you tried to move one of them and you got this error message:

The Action Can’t Be Completed Because The File Is Open In COM Surrogate In Windows 10
The Action Can’t Be Completed Because The File Is Open In COM Surrogate In Windows 10

Before fixing issues with COM Surrogate, let me explain first what is COM Surrogate in Windows 10? You should know that COM Surrogate is known by dllhost.exe name. You can find this file located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. It is not a virus or software but is a safe Microsoft Windows system process that is in function of extracting thumbnails and similar information. For example, if you have a folder with thumbnails enabled, COM Surrogate will compute the thumbnails for the documents in the folder.

You can read more this tutorial if you get the message COM Surrogate has stopped working.

How to Solve The Action Can’t Be Completed Because The File Is Open In COM Surrogate In Windows 10/8/8.1 and Windows 7

First of all, ensure that you updated Windows 10 from Windows Update and that you have all updates installed. Because quite problems with Windows 10 components are resolved using Windows Update. In case if the problem persists, you try some mention methods below:

Method 1: Close COM Surrogate using Task Manager

Many Windows 10 users have been reported that users are getting “The action can’t be completed because the file is open in COM Surrogate” error when they try to modify picture information, and you can fix this problem by closing COM Surrogate process from Task Manager. To do that, follow the steps below:

Step 1. First, you start Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys simultaneously.
Step 2. On the Processes tab, scroll down and look for the COM Surrogate process then right click it.

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Step 3. Select End Task. If you can’t find COM Surrogate process, switch to Details tab and look for dllhost.exe. Then you right click dllhost.exe and select End Task.

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Method 2: Give Full Control To COM Surrogate/dllhost.exe Process

Step 1. You press Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open Task Manager.
Step 2. From the Processes tab, you look for COM Surrogate process then right-click on it, choose Properties. If you can’t find COM Surrogate process, go to Details tab and search for dllhost.exe process. Then you right-click on it and choose Properties.

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Step 3. When the process property sheet opens, go to Security tab. Now you select your account under Group or user names. Make sure that you’ve Full control. To do that, you click Edit.

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Step 4. In the Permissions window, select your account and check Allow against Full control.

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Step 5. Lastly, select Apply then click OK to save changes. Exit Task Manager and you’ll see that the problem is resolved.

Method 3: Give Full Control To Affected File

Step 1. You look for the folder containing affected file then right-click on it and select Properties.

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Step 2. When the property sheet pops up, choose your account under Group or user names. Because you face this problem, you will see that you don’t have Full control for the folder. To fix that, click Edit to go to step 3.

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Step 3. From the next window, choose your account and check Allow against Full control.

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Step 4. Lastly, click Apply then click OK to save changes. Now, the problem should no longer persist.

That’s it. Hope this helps you to fix “The action cannot be completed because the file is open in com surrogate” error in Windows 10/8/8.1 and Windows 7.