We earlier reported that Microsoft has revived and re-released PowerToys. However, in the initial release, it only had two utilities of FancyZones and Shortcut Guide. They have now pushed an update to PowerToys bringing it to version 0.12.0. This new release brings in a new utility called PowerRename. This utility will help users in making use of advanced rename options for the files browsers through the computer. It is a Windows Shell Extension for more advanced bulk renaming using search and replace or regular expressions.
So as of date, the 3 available PowerToys for Windows 10 are:
- FancyZones is a window manager that makes it easy to create complex window layouts and quickly position windows into those layouts.
- Windows key shortcut guide appears when a user holds the Windows key down for more than one second and shows the available shortcuts for the current state of the desktop.
- PowerRename allows simple search and replace or more advanced regular expression matching. While you type in the search and replace input fields, the preview area will show what the items will be renamed to. PowerRename then calls into the Windows Explorer file operations engine to perform the rename.
PowerRename PowerToy for Windows 10
Using the PowerRename utility on PowerToys for Windows 10 is really easy.
First, you need to make sure that PowerToys is installed on your computer and is running in the background.
Then open the File Explorer and select some files and folders in bulk that you wish to rename and right-click on them.
As you do that, select PowerRename.
In the first text field of Search for, enter the expression that you want to replace.
In the second text field of Replace with, enter the expression that you want to replace the old expression with.
You have the following options to customize how the items are iterated or replaced.
Once you are done, just select the Rename button.
It will rename all the files as intended.
If you wish, you can get the latest version of PowerToys from the official GitHub repository here.
