http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ I've tried a lot of removable device managers and this one is one of the best.
I typically never put any thought into these free giveaway type of promotions and simply look the other way. However, I have been having issues with not being able to safely remove my USB 3.0 drive. It was always tied up with a process and could not be safely removed. This program, USB Safely Remove advertised on it's web site that you can remove devices safely even when Windows itself cannot do it. Well, USB Safely Remove failed as well and could not safely remove the device. Luckily I was able to figure out a workaround for the issue. Needless to say, +1 for sticking with built-in Windows device removal.
We don't use it on all our computers but I use it on one with XP. I have a lot of flash drives on that one that I keep plugged in, and it makes it easier to keep them organized. Sometimes XP doesn't list them in alphabetical order but with USB SR they always stay in order. The popup interface is a lot bigger than the XP native one and is in color. For people with bad eyesight like me it's a lot easier to see. It also has a lot of options and a few skins. Most of the time the native Windows SR is just fine, but if a person wants a different one I'd recommend USB SR, especially for XP. A lot of the free ones I tried simply don't work or have very limited options, but this one works great. Getting Windows to release USB devices can be a royal pain. I will agree this software isn't much use in that department. I'd really like to hear your workaround if you care to share it.
Sure thing, I am always happy to share. But keep in mind, though, that this issue might not be specifically the same as others. And I should admit, this program was actually helpful to me because it tells you which running process is tied up with the USB drive, and that is quite handy. In my case, the USB 3.0 drive was tied up to the Explorer (explorer.exe) process, quite likely because I am running Windows 10 preview builds. The issue is happening 100% of the time that I use this drive, doesn't matter whether I close all programs, etc. But since USB Safely Remove program let me know which process was the culprit, I knew how to target it relatively safely. I used the programs ExitExplorer and RestartExplorer (well, just RestartExplorer in this case) from winaero.com (http://winaero.com/blog/exitexplore...exit-and-restart-the-explorer-shell-properly/) which are quite handy for other things as well. I just closed down any running programs, ensured that there was no activity going on with the USB drive, the opened Task Manager and used the run option in Task Manager with admin privileges and select the RestartExplorer program to run. It just simply, and safely, restarts the Windows Explorer shell, essentially the explorer.exe process. Then I was able to use the built-in Windows safely remove tray icon, and in this case after restarting explorer it is now successful. The USB Safely Remove program was also successful at this point as well. I believe that there are also command lines to run for restarting explorer as well instead of running those winaero programs. But in other cases, the USB drive could potentially be tied up with other running processes aside from just explorer.exe, but narrowing down the tied up process with this USB SR program is certainly quite handy. Although I am sure there are other ways to do it as well. But in my case with this Win10 preview build in particular, I have to restart explorer anytime after using this drive to remove it safely. But I would rather deal with the workaround then having to force remove the drive.
trott, it has three sort options, Drive Letter, Device Name, and Drive Label. By default it sorts ascending but you can change it to descending. When you click the tray icon a popup opens with them all listed in order and each has a different icon depending on type of device. Wild, I usually try restarting Explorer. Sometimes it works, other times not. I'm glad you mentioned about USB SR showing what process has the device tied up. I thought it might but it's been a long time since I experimented with the trial version and couldn't remember.
I thought the company had stopped development on Usb Safely Remove some years ago and switched to Zentimo xStorage Manger. Did they restart Usb safely remove development? So, now the same company has two similar competing software! Zentimo USB Safely Remove
I use this software on my main system. It's pretty good. Makes it slightly quicker and easier to eject USB drives. Originally I tried it because sometimes I couldn't eject a USB drive and couldn't find what was keeping it locked. This was back when I used Windows XP. Now on Windows 7 and 8 I experience less of the locking, but I still like USB Safely Remove (more so than Zentimo) because it's a bit more convenient than the built-in Windows function. The eject menu pops up when you hover the mouse over the tray icon, it's larger (size optional), and shows you extra info about the drive, for example, how much space it has and how much is free, extra name info so it's easier to spot the drive you want to eject if you have many connected, and if you eject but fail it tries to find what is locking the drive. You can also open the drive from the tray menu (with a file manager of your choice) - a functionality I find myself using now and then. It lets you assign letters to drives (in case you want to reserve the same letter always for the same drive), hotkeys to eject, or you can eject all (visible) devices with one click or hotkey. It has other functions too. Mainly though I just like the clean, clear interface. As for Zentimo, it's been a long time since I tried it, but I recall thinking it was too cluttered and a bit confusing. I didn't like the interface and I didn't need any of the extra functions it offered beyond USB Safely Remove. I guess others felt the same because shortly after Zentimo was introduced and USB Safely Removed discontinued, they brought it back.