Why do some applications lock files and others don't?

Question

In my datalogging application I write to a temporary file of the form ... AppData\\Local\\Temp\\euaxgd5z.csv

This opens by default in Excel.

Process.Start(TempFileLocationBox.Text.ToString());    

The next time the timer tries to write more data to this file, an exception is thrown. However if I open it with TextPad

Process.Start("textpad.exe", TempFileLocationBox.Text.ToString());    

it can write to the file quite happily and TextPad will ask if I want to reload it. How can I get Excel to behave as nicely as TextPad?

Answer 1

Personally, I wouldn't even try to 'communicate' to excel the fact that you want the file reloaded. I would just write a new file and open a new copy of excel, after closing the old copy if possible.

That way you won't need to worry if the user is using open office instead, for example.