It is likely that setup or installation files mess up with certain files and leave excessively long filenames. Windows supports a maximum of 260 characters for filenames. Upon exceeding this limit, it is possible that you might not be able to move, copy or open a file. To avoid this and shorten the length of long filenames, there are two things you can use.
- Windows PowerShell
Similar to the Command Prompt, the Windows PowerShell can be used to write scripts that automate processes. Let’s discuss two cases how this could be used.
- Remove Long Words
Imagine you have a full album of pictures from your graduation event and all those pictures are named such that the names start with “graduation-”. For example “graduation-12”, “graduation-15” etc. Then, you can use the command given below to strip off the word graduation and leave the remaining numbers. To do so, first open PowerShell and select Run as Administrator. Then navigate to the folder where your files are located by entering the path after a command “cd”. For example, “cd D:\SomeFolder”. Finally, type the following command and hit enter:
get-childitem *.* | foreach { rename-item $_ $_.Name.Replace(“graduation_”, “”) }
- Remove a Specific Number of Characters from the Beginning of your Filenames
Open PowerShell and select Run as Administrator. Then navigate to the folder where your files are located by entering the path after a command “cd”. For example, “cd D:\SomeFolder”. Then run the following command to delete the first 16 characters of all the filenames:
get-childitem * | rename-item -newname { string.substring(16) }
So for example if your filename was universmemories_002.jpg, it will now be changed to 002.jpg.
If you want to modify the command above to ensure that it only works with specific file types, you can do something like this:
get-childitem *.pdf | rename-item -newname { string.substring(16) }
This will ensure the script only gets applied to pdf files. You can change the file extension as per your requirement.
2. Easy File Renamer
Although using PowerShell is efficient, it can be a bit technical and confusing for someone who hasn’t worked with command line tools before. Easy File Renamer, on the other hand, is a user-friendly tool that allows users to rename files in bulk without any technical knowledge. If you want to avoid messing up with files or deleting them by accidentally running a wrong command on the shell, you should resort to using an automated tool like Easy File Renamer.
Using Easy File Renamer is a breeze. Once you have the tool opened,
- First, add your files using the Add Files option. You can add multiple files or folders together too.
- Select the renaming rules you wish to apply. In this case, you can use the Remove Text rule and then specify the number of characters you wish to delete from the beginning or end of your filenames.
- Once you have applied the rules and are satisfied with the changes shown in the preview section, click on the Rename button to apply the final changes.
And that’s all! Easy File Renamer makes it possible for users to modify file names within a few seconds, without having to write any technical commands. The best part is that you can see a preview of the changes before actually making the final changes. This ensures that you are fully satisfied with the results.