Rename multiple files in cmd

Question

If I have multiple files in a directory and want to append something to their filenames  but not to the extension  how would I do this   I have tried the following  with test files file1 txt and file2 txt   ren   txt  1 1 txt   This renames the files to file1 1 txt and file2 txt1 1 txt  I want the files to be file1 1 1 txt and file2 1 1 txt  Will this be possible from cmd or do I need to have a bat file to do this  What about PowerShell

User · Answer

I found the following in a small comment in Supperuser.com:

@JacksOnF1re - New information/technique added to my answer. You can actually delete your Copy of prefix using an obscure forward slash technique: ren "Copy of .txt" "////////"

Of How does the Windows RENAME command interpret wildcards? See in this thread, the answer of dbenham.

My problem was slightly different, I wanted to add a Prefix to the file and remove from the beginning what I don't need. In my case I had several hundred of enumerated files such as:

SKMBT_C36019101512510_001.jpg
SKMBT_C36019101512510_002.jpg
SKMBT_C36019101512510_003.jpg
SKMBT_C36019101512510_004.jpg
:
:

Now I wanted to respectively rename them all to (Album 07 picture #):

A07_P001.jpg
A07_P002.jpg
A07_P003.jpg
A07_P004.jpg
:
:

I did it with a single command line and it worked like charm:

ren "SKMBT_C36019101512510_*.*" "/////////////////A06_P*.*"

Note:

Quoting (") the "<Name Scheme>" is not an option, it does not work otherwise, in our example: "SKMBT_C36019101512510_*.*" and "/////////////////A06_P*.*" were quoted.
I had to exactly count the number of characters I want to remove and leave space for my new characters: The A06_P actually replaced 2510_ and the SKMBT_C3601910151 was removed, by using exactly the number of slashes ///////////////// (17 characters).
I recommend copying your files (making a backup), before applying the above.

User · Answer

This works for your specific case    ren file  txt  file  1 1 txt

User · Answer

Make sure that there are more   than there are characters in the longest name   ren   txt                               1 1 txt    See How does the Windows RENAME command interpret wildcards  for more info   New Solution - 2014 12 01  For those who like regular expressions  there is JREN BAT - a hybrid JScript batch command line utility that will run on any version of Windows from XP forward   jren                amp  1 1   fm    txt    or  jren          txt      1 1 1 2   i

User · Answer

Try this Bulk Rename Utility It works well  Maybe not reinvent the wheel  If you don t necessary need a script this is a good way to go

User · Answer

I was puzzled by this also    didn t like the parentheses that windows puts in when you rename in bulk  In my research I decided to write a script with PowerShell instead  Super easy and worked like a charm  Now I can use it whenever I need to batch process file renaming    which is frequent  I take hundreds of photos and the camera names them IMG1234 JPG etc     Here is the script I wrote     filename  bulk file rename ps1   by  subcan   PowerShell script to rename multiple files within a folder to a    name that increments without       create counter  int   1   ask user for what they want  regex   Read-Host  Regex for files you are looking for  ex  IMG  JPG    file name   Read-Host  What is new file name  without extension  ex  New Image    extension   Read-Host  What extension do you want  ex   JPG     get a total count of the files that meet regex  total   Get-ChildItem -Filter  regex   measure   while loop to rename all files with new name while   int -le  total Count          diplay where in loop you are     Write-Host  within while loop   int         create variable for concatinated new name -         int ToString 000  ensures 3 digit number 001  010  etc      new name    file name    int ToString 000   extension       get the first occurance and rename     Get-ChildItem -Filter  regex   select -First 1   Rename-Item -NewName  new name       display renamed file name     Write-Host  Renamed to   new name       increment counter      int       I hope that this is helpful to someone out there   subcan

User · Answer

I tried pasting Endoro s command  Thanks Endoro  directly into the command prompt to add a prefix to files but encountered an error  Solution was to reduce    to    so   for  f  delims    i in   dir  b  a-d       do ren    i   Service Enviro   ni  xi

User · Answer

The below command would do the job   forfiles  M   txt  C  cmd  c rename  file    fname 1 1 txt      source  Rename file extensions in bulk

User · Answer

Step 1   Select all files  ctrl   A   Step 2    Then choose rename option    Step 3    Choose your filename    for ex  myfile  it automatically rename to myfile  01  myfile  02          If you want to replace spaces  amp  bracket   continue step 4  Step 4   Open Windows Powershell from your current folder    Step 5   For replace empty space to underscore       dir   rename-item -NewName     name -replace  Regex   Escape             Step 6   For replace open bracket   dir   rename-item -NewName     name -replace  Regex   Escape            For replace close bracket   dir   rename-item -NewName     name -replace  Regex   Escape

User · Answer

for  f  delims     i in   dir  b  a-d   txt   do ren     i      ni 1 1   xi    If you use the simple for  loop without the  f parameter  already renamed files will be again renamed

User · Answer

echo off for   f in    txt  do       ren     nf   xf      nf 1 1   xf

[windows] Rename multiple files in cmd

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