Tag Archives: show-and-tell

PowerToys – PowerRename

Have you ever needed to rename or modify a large number of files, say even change the dating format? I have. I used to create a batch file for this, which was a little tricky and sometimes would lead to mistakes. To avoid that, you can use PowerToys, PowerRename utility.

After you install PowerToys, you’ll automatically see the context menu PowerRename after right clicking files in a folder.

What I wanted to further add is there are more than just renaming files as per the GUI. Using the link below, look under Examples of regular expressions and you’ll find various ways you can add text to the start, end or in-between certain text strings.

PowerToys PowerRename utility for Windows | Microsoft Docs
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/powerrename#examples-of-regular-expressions

For example I started working on a project that I created various documents, after I noticed I needed to title the documents based on sections, however I had something like twenty files to rename. I needed to add a keyword just before the main title of the file name. Using the ^ expression, I avoided renaming twenty or so files. There is plenty more useful strings/expressions if needed.