Monday, 21 May, 2018 UTC
Summary
In daily professional life, being able to do a certain action on a whole batch of files or folders adds a lot to your productivity. Batch image editing is a good example in this regard. Similarly, there are tools that can help you batch rename your file names too.
Yes, there are such apps availble and in this post, I am going to introduce you to the best free desktop tools to batch rename filenames in Windows. Let dig right into it.
Note: In this complete post, I will be trying to rename the files in the folder “Files to rename” on my desktop using the tools on this list. In this folder, I have some files named “New Microsoft Word Document – Copy(N).docx” and I will rename them to “V(N).docx”, where N is a number and V can be any name.
1. File Renamer Basic
If you work with multiple image and music files, you will love File Renamer Basic. Its powerful features and intuitive interface makes even the complex renaming tasks a piece of cake.
You can add prefixes and suffixes, use regular expressions, and preview the names before making the ultimate changes. I liked its features that help rename audio and image files based on their tags information.
Its paid versions offer even more functions, for example, options to undo rename, process subfolders, and create up to 50 profiles for automating the renaming process.
Here are the steps to rename files using File Renamer Basic:
- Open File Renamer Basic > choose the files to rename.
- Click on the “File Name Properties” tab > under Prefix, check the box next to Include, and add a prefix “V” (or any other name).
- Under Filename, uncheck Include > select filename in the drop-down below Include > choose “Custom Filename” and check the box next to “Place Unique Parameter before Filename” option.
- Under Separator, uncheck Include to remove the separator.
- Under “Unique Parameter“, check Include > select Numbers and change Mask to “00” to add two-digit numbers as a suffix.
- Under Extension, check Include > select “Leave Unchanged” to rename with the same extension of the original file.
- You can click the Preview button and check the expected file names in the column “New File Name” in the table.
- After you are satisfied with expected new names, click the Apply button to make the final changes, i.e., rename the files.
2. Advanced Renamer
If you are looking for more flexibility to rename files and folders compared to File Renamer Basic, Advanced Renamer fits the bill. It works well for renaming image, and audio and video files. Moreover, it offers 10+ renaming methods, which you can use to set batch jobs of renaming mass files or folders.
You can add, remove, replace, change case, or give a new name to the file based on location tags as well as copy and move or undo the changes. Let me walk you through the process of renaming files using Advanced Renamer:
- Open Advanced Renamer > click Add under “Rename Files“, then from the drop-down list, pick the files, and in the dialog box, select the files to rename, and then click the Open button.
- In the left pane, click the “Add method“ button > select “New Name” and under “New Name” type “V” (or any other) > under “Default Tags“, choose “<Inc NR> Incrementing numbers” and under “Apply To” choose Name.
- In the right pane, under “New Filename” column, you will see the new file name. Please check that the final names are proper per the requirement.
- Finally, click the “Start Batch” button in the top right of the window > select the “Batch Mode” as Rename, and then click OK.
3. ReNamer Lite
The minimalistic look of ReNamer Lite may try to fool you, but it offers lots of advanced options, thanks to its support for PascalScript. It offers all renaming procedures, like prefixes and suffixes, text replacements, and case change as well as advanced options like removing brackets or changing extensions.
It supports regular expressions, Unicode filenames, and meta tags of multiple media file types. You can give renaming actions in the lite version and numerous more in its pro version, which you can further use to create rule sets. You can later run, edit, reload and save a rule set as required.
You can rename files using ReNamer Lite by following these simple steps:
- Open ReNamer Lite > click “Add Files” button to add files to rename.
- Click the Add button, and you will see the “Add Rule” window.
- In the “Add Rule” window, choose Insert in the left pane > in the configuration area (at right), set Insert and type “V” > select Prefix and uncheck skip extension as we need to include extensions.
- Click “Add Rule” button at the bottom to finally add the rule.
- Click the Add button and you will see the “Add Rule” window.
- Now select Remove on the left > in the configuration pane, under Remove update the text to “New Microsoft Word Document – Copy (*)” and check the box next to “Interpret symbols ‘?,’ ‘*,’ ‘[,’ ‘]’ as wildcards?“.
- Click “Add Rule” button at the bottom to finally add the rule.
- Click the Add button, and you will see the “Add Rule” window.
- Choose Serialize in left, and in the right pane, set “Index starts:“ as “1“ > set Repeat to “1“ > set Step: to “1“ > set “Reset every:“ to “1“ > check “Reset if file name changes“ > check “Pad with zeros to length:” as “2” and select the “Numbering system:“ > under “Insert where:” choose Position: as “2“.
- Click “Add Rule” button at the bottom to finally add the rule.
- After you are done adding required rules, click the Preview button at the top > see the expected new filenames in “New Name” column in the table.
- Finally, click the Rename button to make the final changes.
4. Bulk Rename Utility
I found the interface of Bulk Rename Utility cluttered as compared to all other tools on this list. However, it is a lightweight and highly customizable tool with impressive features you can use to rename, remove or swap extensions, and change timestamp as well. Also, you can save frequently used configurations.
You can directly import and rename thousands of images and sounds in just seconds. It supports various file formats and regular expressions as well, but only a few tags. It can also stack commands and run JavaScript, making it an excellent tool for advanced users to create their configurations.
Below are the steps to rename files using Bulk Rename Utility:
- Open Bulk Rename Utility > select the files to rename.
- Select or highlight all the files you need to rename under Name, and then under “Name (2)“, select Fixed and type “V” (or any name).
- Now under “Numbering (10)“, select Mode as Suffix > set Start as 1 > set at as 0 > set Incr. as 1, and set Pad to 2 as well.
- Preview the new file names under the “New Name” column in the table at the top, and then click on the Rename button.
Note: The Rename button will appear disabled until you select or highlight the files to rename in the table at the center-top of the window.
5. File Renamer Turbo
I liked the uncomplicated interface of File Renamer Turbo as compared to Bulk Rename Utility. It offers 20+ advanced renaming actions, for example, it has actions to find and replace text, insert and trim text, use regular expressions, insert numbers, change cases, move files, and many more.
File Renamer Turbo can read and write tag information from/to media files and even retrieve more information from the web based on these music tags. That said, you can move and organize music, image and video files. It offers command line support, regex support, and an option to search for albums online.
Now let us see how to rename files using File Renamer Turbo:
- Open File Renamer Turbo > click “Add Files in Folder” button to select the files you wish to rename.
- Click the “Add Basic Filter” button to select the renaming actions > add “Find & Replace“ > in the right pane, and next to Find:, type “New Microsoft Word Document” and next to Replace:, type “V” (or any name).
- Click “Add Basic Filter” again > add “Trim Between” and in the right pane, choose 2 for “Remove characters between position:“ > set “from the” as the left side > set 13 for “as position” and set “from the” as left side.
- Click the “Add Basic Filter” button > add Counter > in the right pane, for Prefix: type “<filename>” and let the Suffix: be empty.
- Preview the new filenames under the “New File Name” column in the table at the bottom and click the Rename button to rename them.
Bonus: Windows’s method
Windows also hosts a simple process to rename multiple files. It works like this: select the various files you wish to rename, right-click and choose Rename from the context menu, and type a new name and press Enter. After you are done, you will see the files get renamed sequentially. That said, if you gave “WD” as the name, new file names would be “WD (1)”, “WD (2)”, and so on.
Hope these methods will help you rename files in batch. Which tool did you find the best for your needs?
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