xyplorer. I'm just curious if there is a bug with something in Windows itself causing XYplorer to do this. I've not used Total Commander is a while, maybe I can give that a shot, although no other apps have issues deleting a PDF file such as XnView, etc, so why would Total Commander have an issue(?). As far as I can tell it's just XYplorer.
Per my previous reply, I'm unable to locate an older version that works without issue. I've gone as far back as 22.70.0000 (11-Jan-2022)... If I wait an hour or so after launching XYplorer the file (PDF) is locked and a PDF was never been opened or Adobe PDF opened. Rebooting does not solve the issue. Closing XYplorer the file can be deleted, or deleted by Explorer. I'll try an earlier version sometime.