Is there a way to batch rename files to lowercase?

Question

I need a way to rename all files in folders and subfolders to lowercase.

I'd like to know if there is a way to do that using only windows (XP or 7)

Answer 1

Do you require a GUI-based solution or a command line interface (CLI)?

It may be easier to use the CLI option since you won't have to deal with installing more applications or searching for a free application to suite your needs.

Since you mentioned "batch", I leave you with this excellent article which is nearly cut & paste to get you on your way in minutes: JSI Tip 0568 - How do I convert a file name to lowercase?

Answer 2

spacetornado Renamer is a Windows program that renames mass amounts of files in batches. You can search and replace text, remove a certain number of characters, change the case to lower, upper or First Letter Capital, and add text to the beginning or end (append/prepend) of every filename

Answer 3

From http://windowsitpro.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=81612:

Using only standard commands, I have scripted LwrCase.bat and LwrCase_Folder.bat, to rename a file name to lower case, or rename all file names in a folder to lower case.

To rename a file name to lower case, use:

[call] LwrCase FullyQualifiedFileName

Where FullyQualifiedFileName is the fully qualified file name to be renamed.

To rename all the files names in a directory, use:

[call] LwrCase_Folder FullyQualifiedDirectoryName [/S]

where FullyQualifiedDirectoryName is the fully qualify folder path, and /S is an optional parameter that will also rename files names in all sub-folders.

NOTE: LwrCase.bat makes use the the /L switch of the DIR command, which returns lower case names.

LwrCase.bat contains:

@echo off
if {%1}=={} @echo Syntax: LwrCase FullyQualifiedFileName&goto :EOF
if not exist %1 @echo LwrCase - %1 NOT found.&goto :EOF
setlocal
for /f "Tokens=*" %%a in ('@echo %~a1') do (
 set file=%%a
)
if /i "%file:~0,1%" EQU "d" @echo LwrCase - %1 is NOT a file.&endlocal&goto :EOF
for /f "Tokens=*" %%f in ('dir %1 /L /b /a /a-d') do (
 Rename %1 "%%f"
)
endlocal

LwrCase_Folder.bat contains:

@echo off
if {%1}=={} @echo Syntax: LwrCase_Folder FullyQualifiedDirectoryName&goto :EOF
if not exist %1 @echo LwrCase_Folder - %1 NOT found.&goto :EOF
setlocal
for /f "Tokens=*" %%a in ('@echo %~a1') do (
 set folder=%%a
)
if /i "%folder:~0,1%" NEQ "d" @echo LwrCase_Folder - %1 is NOT a folder.&endlocal&goto :EOF
pushd %1
set sw=/B /A /A-D
if /i {%2}=={/S} set sw=%sw% %2
for /f "Tokens=*" %%f in ('dir %sw%') do (
 call LwrCase "%%f"
)
popd
endlocal

Answer 4

http://www.dostips.com/DtCodeCmdLib.php#Function.toLower gives a simple function that you should be able to include and call from a batch file.

So have the batch file iterate over the folders/filenames, and call this function to generate the lowercase version of the name.

Answer 5

My personal favorite batch file-renaming utility is Cylog's WildRename. Among many other features, it can change the case of filenames. The best thing about WildRename is probably that it supports regular-expressions!

Answer 6

The best program for doing this in Windows is Bulk Rename Utility. It is a mans tool. You can even use regex to rename files and/or folders. It also has shell integration (so you can execute from explorer with a right click) which is very nice. 64 bit and 32 bit versions available.

Answer 7

Go to the directory and run the following command:

for /f "Tokens=*" %f in ('dir /l/b/a-d') do (rename "%f" "%f")

Answer 8

When you say 'only windows (XP or 7), does this exclude using Python?

I saw this answer:

Something as simple as http://www.palovick.com/code/python/python-rename-files.php will handle it.

in this post.

I can't vouch for this but it may be what you are looking for.