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Find and Replace function in filenames?

Anonymous
2009-03-23T10:13:47+00:00

Is it possible to do a find and replace in filenames, rather than in office or similar?  I have a big list of file names that all have a problem with them that I want to replace, but I don't want to go through and do each one manually!  Any better way to do it?

Rob

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2009-03-23T23:32:24+00:00

    Hello exoticdisease,

    Thank you for posting to the Microsoft Answers Forum.

    Select the files in Windows Explorer, hold Shift, and right-click them. Choose Copy as Path from the menu. Paste the list into whatever editor you prefer. You get the full pathname for each file, but a simple find/replace will clean that up if necessary.

    I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for or not.

    Please reply and let us know if this has resolved your issue or if you need further assistance.

    Marilyn

    Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

    Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-04T20:51:21+00:00

    Do not follow this advise from BugChaser. This does not act as a true "find & replace" function. It simply renames all the selected files the same name and adds a unique number at the end!!

    8 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-24T19:13:14+00:00

    No actually MS support, just a community forum??

    Ah, I'm using 3rd party Better File Rename. Does the job.

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2011-10-01T13:47:04+00:00

    I could create the text file with the filenames as described. I changed with find and replace the text for each filename as desired. I placed this textfile in the same folder as the files that need to be renamed. Now what? How to use this text file to atually rename the files?? should i use a comand prompt for this? if yes, what should this comand be to read from this file? I don't want to use a 3'rd party tool for this.

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2012-12-19T18:03:57+00:00

    I have multiple files that have a hyphen in them. I want to change that to an underscore. How in windows explorer.

    5 people found this answer helpful.
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