Mass rename of files?

[gbhall]

In the good 'ol days of Dos there was a remarkable Dos command called 'rename', which would accept various wild cards and would work very well indeed. Then Windows came along, and there is no similar program under Windows.

Although the 'rename' command is still present under a Dos box (run command), it not longer accepts wild cards in the same way. Actually it can make a right mess, as for example RENAME *.pdf Jobs_*.pdf instead of starting each file name with the new bit 'Jobs_' it now overwrites the first 5 characters of each name.

Can anyone suggest a neat utility to do this important wild-card rename task under Windows XP ?

 

[CCT]

You could try and run DOS!

http://pages.prodigy.net/daleharris/xperrors.htm

 

[gguerra]

Dont forget the obvious.. Use google or your favorite search engine
I quickly found this
Bulk rename utility
http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

 

[gbhall]

Thanks to both above for the interesting links. Dos (i.e. Dos 16) I rejected because it does not handle long file names at all. I also found many problems with the 32-bit Dos-subsystem built into XP, but have solved them by setting up properties for the command prompt to use command.com not cmd.exe and restricting memory - no EMS or XMS, use HMA.

As to the bulk rename utility - breathtaking ! (If I can cope with it...)