Rename Multiple Files Using a Third Party App You can learn more about PowerShell in general from our Geek School guide, and learn more about the rename-item commandlet from Microsoft’s TechNet Library. And, of course, you can also build more complicated commandlet structures that even include IF/THEN logic. For example, the rename-item commandlet also offers features like a -recurse switch that can apply the commandlet to files in a folder and all folders nested inside that folder, a -force switch that can force renaming for files that are locked or otherwise unavailable, and even a -whatif switch that describes what would happen if the commandlet was executed (without actually executing it). RELATED: Geek School: Learn How to Automate Windows with PowerShellĪs you might expect, PowerShell offers tremendous power when it comes to naming your files and we’re only scratching the surface here. The rest of the commandlet just signifies that any space ( ' ' ) should be replaced by an underscore ( '_' ). The -replace switch indicates that a replacement is going to happen. The $_.name part stands in for each of the files getting piped. The dir part of that commandlet lists all the files in the folder and pipes them (that’s the | symbol) to the rename-item commandlet. From the “File” menu, point to “Open Windows PowerShell,” and then select “Open Windows Powershell.”ĭir | rename-item -NewName The quickest way to open a PowerShell window at your desired location is to first open the folder in File Explorer. Pipe the output of Dir to Rename-Item and you’re in business. Using PowerShell, you can pipe the output of one command-known as a “commandlet” in PowerShell terms-to another command, just like you can on Linux and other UNIX-like systems. The two important commands you’ll need are Dir, which lists the files in the current directory, and Rename-Item, which renames an item (a file, in this case). PowerShell offers even more flexibility for renaming files in a command-line environment. If you’re interested, the folks over at the Lagmonster forums have an excellent writeup on the subject.

RELATED: How to Write a Batch Script on WindowsĪnd this only begins to address the kinds of command line wizardy you can get into if you want to build more complicated commands-or even batch scripts-by weaving other commands and conditionals into things. html extension to use the same file name and same first three letters only of the file extension, which ends up cutting the “l” off of all the extensions in the folder. This tells Windows to rename all files with the.

Windows 10 bulk rename utility