If have several files you want to rename and differentiate them by number - then this program is for you. If you have a folder full of files that you want to change the case or extension on - then this program is for you. If you have a folder full of files and you want to change only that part of their names each file has in common - then this file is for you. And most any other senario you may have for change a group of file names - this program will probably be for you.

My wallpaper sites contain over 8,000 wallpaper jpg's and I had to rename them all at one time or another. Every month I add a hundred or so more wallpapers and each of these jpg's have to be renamed; if I had to do this renaming file by file I would be a basket-case by now.

There are several freeware file rename programs available and I have tried most of them, but ended up settling on CKRename about six months ago.

As you can see from the above screenshot the program provides a three-pane interface: One(Left side) to select a path, one(Middle) to display the contents of the current path, and the last(Right) to show the effects of the renaming options you've chosen.

The bottom portion of the programs screen contains four section:

Section I Change Filename

This section allows you to leave the current file name by selecting none and than moving onto Section I,II,III, or IV. You can also type in a new file name and then select whether you want that new name to (i) replace the old name,(ii)to be inserted before or (iii)after the existing filename or (iv)to remove a part of the existing filename.

Section II Auto Number

This selection allows for a null choice, or you can choose to assign a number (you choose the number and increment and whether or not to infill with zero's .i.e. 001,002,003...010 etc.) to the begining or end of each file name.

Section III Change Extension

This section allows you to change the extension. I had occassion to use this on a folder with a couple hundred files in it that somehow had the extensions changed from jpg to JPG. I had to change them back to lowercase and with CKRename it was about 30 seconds work instead who knows how long and how many more gray hairs.

Section IV File Mask

This is kind of a neat feature. If you have a folder full of files and want to exclude some of them from being renamed; then you can include something that group of files has in common in its name that the candidates for renaming do not.

CKRename places a a reference to itself in your Windows Explorer context menu for added convienence.

CKRename is very easy to use and, better yet, it's free. Half and hour of playing around with it and you will be an expert at "batch" renaming. Unfortunately the file does not come with a help file (the author is asking for someone to volunteer to write such a file for him).

You can visit Pat Hall's website to download CKRename and check out CKFolder as well.