
The following example renames the computer directory to hope. For example, if the program is looking for a directory named "data" and you rename it to "other," the program would no longer know where data files are located. Renaming a directory containing files may cause problems if that directory contains files required by a program. The only exception is if you're using wild characters. Because you cannot have a file and directory of the same name, you don't need to worry about mistakenly renaming a file instead of a directory. Use the ren or rename command to rename the directory. Renaming a directory in MS-DOS is much like renaming a file.

rename h?pe.txt hope.txt Renaming a directory The "?" used in the following example is the wild character for an unknown character. In this next example, the command renames a file with an unknown character in the file name to something that can be read. The following example renames all the files in the current directory that end with. Below are examples of how this could be done. To rename multiple files at once, you must utilize some form of wild character. rename "computer hope.txt" "example file.txt" Renaming multiple files with one command To rename the file " computer hope.txt" to " example file.txt", your command would resemble the following example. Otherwise, you get the " The syntax of the command is incorrect" error. If a file or directory has a space, it must be surrounded with quotes. rename c:\computer\test.txt hope.txt Renaming a file with a space For example, if the file is in the "computer" directory, type a command similar to the following example.

If the test.txt file is not located in your current directory, you must specify the file's path as a prefix to the file name. The following example renames the file test.txt to hope.txt.

Additional information about these commands is found by clicking the command links above. Below are examples of how this command can be used. MS-DOS and Windows command (CMD) line users can change the name of a file or directory using the ren or rename command. How to rename in MS-DOS and the Windows command line Microsoft Windows users can also rename any file using the Windows command line. If you have file extensions displayed, make sure to also type the name of the file extension. For example, typing "test" renames the files to test, test(1), test(2), test(3), etc.

Renaming multiple files or folders at once If you don't wait long enough and click the file or folder too fast, it can open it rather than allowing you to rename it.
