Windows only 
I’m a big fan of file renaming utilities because they can save a ton of time when you have hundreds of files or photos who’s filename needs to be cleaned up. There are a few different tools that I used in the past to do this, but lately I’ve found myself gravitating to a freeware application called Ken Rename. It’s available for Windows only, and the best part may be that you can download a portable version that is ready to be thrown on a USB drive.
This program has all of the features that we look for including a live preview of the changes, and the ability to undo an operation. It also supports regular expressions for those of you who like to get down and dirty with your file renaming.
Here’s a list of features it includes:
- Filter files with wildcard
- Use multi-actions to rename and can change order
- Create a numbered file list
- Convert to upper or lowercase
- Replace a string with a different string
- Use regular expression with Replace
- Keep only certain letters of the file name
- Remove a string between 2 string or before or after a string
- Can undo rename
- Unicode support
- Convert of code page
- ID3v1 ID3v2 support
- EXIF support
- Set File Attribute
- Select directory in file explorer with context menu
- Preview rename results are shown immediately
- Export and import rename file list
- Save actions as preset
- Picture preview
- Custom keyboard shortcuts
- VBScript support
The program has been receiving updates every few weeks so be sure to check back regularly for new versions.
Get Ken Rename for Windows
Is this more powerful/easier-to-use than THE Rename? Herve hasn’t updated THE Rename in years (help isn’t properly linking on XP but can be loaded manually) but it’s still the most useful I’ve found. If this is more useful, I’ll switch.
I agree, the rename is pretty good, lets check if this is better.
Honestly, I’ve yet to find one as simple and powerful as ReNamer – [den4b.com]
I had been using ReNamer also. I had previously tested this one, and liked it, has lots of options and it’s very intuitive. But as i am used to ReNamer, i didn’t substituted it.
Both are way better and practical than some paid ones.
This can be useful for giving names to photos in Vista, because the way to copy photos from camera to computer is really horrible. There is no way to choose a folder that already exists for the photos and it doesn’t always remember which photos have already been copied to computer earlier so some photos will be copied twice. In XP you can choose which photos you want to copy but not in Vista. Boo-Hoo
hhmm.. it’s a good idea.. it helps a lot. thankz..
Wow! It does NOT WORK in Windows Vista. What a surprise. I am shocked!
A lot of errors show up at program startup and closing. No toolbar icons appear.
I’m still a little partial to ReNamer myself, but certain things are nice with this application. Like having the ability to see a live preview of the changes.
That’s exactly what I use these kind of tools for. I hate the useless names that cameras assign to images.