How to?-How to mark a file at the OS level

[SOLAR]

Here's the scenario I want to be able to programmatically mark a file in a way with a flag or something that will tell the OS to do something with the file.

For example...I know uninstallers when uninstalling an app deletes some of the files related to an application but sometimes to compleletly remove the software the computer needs to be rebooted as some file are being used by the system. However, once the reboot occurs the un-installer has marked the file to be deleted at reboot i.e. before the operating system loads it again.

I know the un-installer marks the file because a few days ago i un-installed an application and without rebooting i tried to reinstall it and the OS (Win XP) gave me an alert that said something like "Cannot install because [some_filename_here] is marked for deletion"

How does the un-installer do this? And how can i accomplish this using some programming language preferable VB/C#.Net or VB?

Thank you in advance for any help