Renaming multiple files in Windows

Question

I have a folder containing multiple .txt files which have been created by another program. However the program outputs each file with "-Module" in the filename. eg

filename-Module.txt
filename1-Module.txt
filename2-Module.txt

I would like to know if there's a script or command (Powershell/cmd) that I can run which will iterate over each file and remove the "-Module" from each filename so I simply end up with

filename.txt
filename1.txt
filename2.txt

I have tried using cmd from the directory, with the following:

rename *-Module.txt *txt

This resulted in no change.

What have you tried so far, where are you stuck? Please share your efforts; [edit] your question for that... — aschipfl, Dec 18 '17 at 16:33
Might be able to find your answer here https://superuser.com/questions/236820/how-do-i-remove-the-same-part-of-a-file-name-for-many-files-in-windows-7 — Zannith, Dec 18 '17 at 16:39
Possible duplicate of [Rename multiple files in cmd](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17271586/rename-multiple-files-in-cmd) — Guillaume S, Dec 18 '17 at 16:46
Thanks for all the advice. I am really only beginning to try and learn PS/cmd so I appreciate the feedback and direction. — B.Ahern, Dec 19 '17 at 15:27

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '17 at 17:04

2

You can use get-childitem and pipe it into rename-item.

    get-childitem -path 'c:\folderwherefilesarelocated' -recurse |
    rename-item -newname {$_.Name -replace "-module", ""}

answered Dec 18 '17 at 17:04

MattMoo

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The bit after `'-module'` isn't actually necessary to remove the text – Maximilian Burszley Dec 18 '17 at 17:05
Thanks MattMoo . This took care of things nicely. – B.Ahern Dec 19 '17 at 15:28

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 18 '17 at 17:08

Relatively straightforward:

Get-ChildItem ComputerName\TestLocation\testfolder -filter "*-module*" | Rename-Item -NewName {$_.name -replace '-module', ''}

Get the items in the folder, look for filenames with "-module" in them, and then replace the "-module" text with an empty string. You can also append a -whatif to see the output before performing this action.

Renaming multiple files in Windows

2 Answers2