I am at my wit's end.

I have a Microsoft Excel file on a network, and every
Windows-2000-based computer in the office thinks it's locked.  If I
try to open it with Excel, I get the message "(filename) is locked for
editing by (my name)."  If I try to delete or rename the file from
Windows Explorer, I get the error message "There has been a sharing
violation.  The source or destination file may be in use."

Microsoft's Knowledge Base is of utterly no help, as usual.

How do I break the lock on this file?  Do I need administrator privileges?

Open up "Server Manager" and double click on the computer that hosts
the file.  Click the "In Use" button and it will tell you who has the
file locked.  You can release it from that same window via the "Close
Resource" button.

Example:

<a href="http://hob.allens.com/pics/google/20040420_locked_file.jpg">
http://hob.allens.com/pics/google/20040420_locked_file.jpg
</a>

If you do not have admin privileges, you can still create a workable
copy of the file by opening it as Read-only, then saving it under a
new filename.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher