Quick Rename of Files in Bulk

by Eric Wyatt
(last updated June 17, 2019)

2

Over the years there have been several times I have needed to batch rename groups of files. Whether this is 10 files or 100, the process can be time consuming and tedious. Fortunately, Windows provides a way to quickly rename a group of files quickly, as long as you are OK with the file names following the same naming structure and to be in sequential order.

To rename your files quickly follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the folder with the files you wish to rename. In my case I have a folder with 18 different photos. (See Figure 1.)

    2. Figure 1. Explorer window with several files selected.

  2. Select all the files you want renamed. If it is all the files in a folder you can press Ctrl+A to select all the files.
  3. Press F2. Windows will activate the edit name function of the first file.
  4. Rename the File with the name you want. In my case I entered "Web Images Large."
  5. When you're done with the new name, press Enter. Windows automatically renames all the selected files with the new name and it will add a number to the end contained within parentheses, i.e., (10). (See Figure 2.)

    6. Figure 2. All files of Explorer Window renamed with same naming structure.

Now you can quickly edit a large group of images to have the same common naming structure, without downloading any third-party software.

 This tip (13644) applies to Windows 7, 8, and 10.

Author Bio

Eric Wyatt

Eric Wyatt is a swell guy (or so his friends tell him). He is a formally trained designer and branding expert, bringing a wide range of skills to his Tips.Net articles. ...

MORE FROM ERIC

Typing Insights

Gaining insights into how you type can improve your typing skills and allow you to see how you're doing. The Windows 10 ...

Discover More

Using the Voice Recorder

Windows 10 includes the new Voice Recorder app. Ideal for recording lectures, cute things your kids say, musical ...

Discover More

Enabling Speech to Text Dictation

With Dictation feature in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, you can quickly say what you want and have Windows 10 ...

Discover More
More WindowsTips

Logging Robocopy Operations

If you schedule Robocopy operations, you may want to maintain log files of what happened. In this case, getting familiar ...

Discover More

Renaming Multiple Files at the Same Time

It's possible to rename multiple files at the same time, but the new names of the files may leave a bit to be desired. ...

Discover More

Using the DiskPart Utility

The DiskPart utility is a low-level command-line program that lets you manage disks, virtual disks, partitions, and ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WindowsTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is three minus 2?

2019-06-18 02:41:45

gerdami

FreeCommander XE has a very good renaming feature that does more than this tip.

2019-06-17 22:35:56

Bob Ama

At one point Windows appended a date & time stamp to a large number of my files. "budget.xlsx" became "budget (2019_06_17 19_34_34 UTC).xlsx" and "essay.docx" became "essay (2019_06_17 19_34_34 UTC).docx", for example.

I was able to rename all of them using the utility found at https://www.advancedrenamer.com/. It's not the most intuitive program you've ever used, but it did the job quite well. It sure beats having to manually rename all of those files one by one by one by one.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WindowsTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2019 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.