Actually, this is about more than just deleting brushes, it is also about the file dialog, and how it works under Windows. I am using Gimp 2.6.10 in Windows-7. I have been using Gimp for several years, but never a heavy user, just occasional when I have to take a few pounds off the wife, or otherwise repair a family photo, or just feel like dabbling.

I had several times wanted to add a little "Look here" arrow to images to help with explaining or asking a question, and last night I decided to add a brush in the shape of an arrow to allow quickly inserting such an arrow. I had never added a custom brush, so I looked in the Gimp "help" and found it pretty quickly. Then, I got careless. I did not read carefully, and I must have had too much wine. I knew better anyway, but, I saved my new brush in the System brushes folder rather than my personal brushes.

Well, the new brush was not quite what I wanted, so I decided to start over, but now this brush (like all system brushes) is read-only, will not delete, will not edit. No problem, I thought, I will just go delete the file for this brush manually. Windows Explorer opens and I navigate to
"C:/Program Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes/"
There are a bunch of brush files, But there is no file named upArrow.gbr
In Gimp, from the brush menu, I copy the brush location, I get
file:///C:/Program%20Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes/UpArrow.gbr
Again in Gimp, I trace my steps for saving the brush, back to the system brushes folder, and there is a file already there, upArrow.gbr... but not in Windows Explorer...

I could learn to live with the extra not-quite-right brush stuck on the brushes tool box, but I will never sleep comfortably until I know why the Gimp "File-Save-as" file manager shows a file that the Windows file manager (and command line DIR and ATTRIB) does not show.

In Windows, can you browse to Program Files in Windows Explorer and do a search for UpArrow.gbr? If it shows up you should hopefully be able to delete it from there.

In the brushes dialog of GIMP, down at the bottom, there is the option to delete the chosen brush. Have you tried that?

Thanks for the suggestions folks, but no luck.

It is a bit disturbing that Windows Explorer (and other Windows tools) does not admit that any such file exists. I thought that the Gimp file/open/save dialog was a reflection of the Windows file structure, but I am now doubting that.

And the Brushes Dialog has "Delete" grayed out for the system brushes.

I right click on the brush itself in the brush dialog and delete it. It should work. But I think you need to have administrative power in Windows to delete any system file, so I always opened Explorer as admin.

I don't use Windows and have no idea why it wouldn't be showing your brush file; however, you might do the following to delete the file using GIMP.

Open GIMP while logged in as your administrative user.
Open the "Edit->Preferences->Folders->Brushes" page and check the "Writeable" box next to the path "C:/Program%20Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes/" (or somesuch). Close the Preferences dialog.

Open the Brushes dialog ("Windows->Dockable Dialogs->Brushes") and activate the offending brush. The trash can icon should no longer be grayed out, and when you click on it, you will be asked if you want to remove the brush and delete its file from the disk.

Afterward, change your Preferences back so that system brushes are no longer writeable, close GIMP, and log out of your administrative account.

More interesting and puzzling all the time. "Delete" for this brush is still grayed out. Brush is not visible in Windows Explorer. I created the problem brush initially as a non Admin user. The brush only shows up for that user. I promoted this user account to Admin, and unprotected this file and looked again, still not visible in explorer, only in the Brush dialog, and in the Gimp File dialog, and there, it is not deletable. It is as if the new brush is not really a file as far as Windows is concerned.

As I say, I am not a strong Gimp user, but I have been doing Windows for a good while. I expect the Gimp "brush" dock to show files as contained in the list of the combined folders specifying where brushes are stored. When I use Gimp to File-Save-as and nav to the system brushes folder, I see 21 files already there, When I use Windows Explorer, I see 46 files in this folder. In the Brush doc, I see 50, likely the 46 mentioned above, + 3 in the personal brushes folder, + the clipboard brush. But I dont understand the 21 file result at all.
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Sorry for the wordy, stream of consciousness style. My original unwanted brush problem is SOLVED...

Problem was here:

I really feel stupid for missing this earlier, but I learned a lot along the way.
And I am still freaked out by the difference between Windows Explorer results and the the Gimp File dialog results. I will check back occasionally to see if anyone has an explanation for this, but now it is a philosophical issue, rather than a practical one.

Thanks to all for helpful suggestions

I was going to suggest opening explorer and going to tools/folder options and view hidden folders.
Then browse to the file and right click/properties/take the tick out of read only and click ok.
Looks like you figured out a quick fix though.

I think you ran into a windows 7 "feature"
http://serverfault.com/questions/165278 ... protection

Namely User Account Control hiding things in the program files folder. GIMP doesn't respect UAC.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... nt-control

-Rob A>

I don't see how GIMP is doing anything amiss. If Windows 7 permits unprivileged users to create/modify files within the Programs directory (e.g., C:/Program%20Files/GIMP-2.0/share/gimp/2.0/brushes/) then GIMP permits it also; if Windows 7 limits such activity to administrator accounts then it is the responsibility of the user not to run GIMP with administrative privileges.