Bulk renaming is a task a lot of different people struggle with. I recently needed to do this myself for a large bulk video export with around 50 files, which in the aftermath required a file name change. I really didn’t enjoy the idea of doing this one by one, so I headed out to the depths of the internet to struggle to find a solution. To save you time, here’s the tool I discovered and how to use it.

The answer is Bulk Rename Utility. It’s a free piece of software that may look like it’s from the 90s but does the job with a ton of functionalities: Replacing certain parts of the file name, removing or adding in front or behind the file name, prefixes, suffixes, numbering, auto dates and a lot more. Over the past weeks it saved me felt hours of work.

The installation is rather simple. Head to their website, and click on the big free download button, even if this may trigger PTSD of your first encounter with viruses and ransomware back in your childhood. It’s clean for me, but for safety like you should do with all downloads of programs, check through it with your virus scanner. Then just run through the installer and you’re ready to go.

You’ll be greeted with this window. To choose your files location click on the folder icon top-right. After doing so you can highlight all the files that need a change in the large middle area. And lastly, make the needed changes with the tools at the bottom. You can see the selected files highlighted in blue, the before name on the left, and the new name highlighted in green on the right. In this case:

• we added the prefix “Test-”

• the suffix “-”

• with a counting number 1 and onwards after the suffix.

Just play around with the parameters, to learn how to use them. Hope this will save you as much time and headaches as it does for me. Have a beautiful day!

Happy Creating,
Jonas