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How to Rename Files or Folders in Windows 7

March 30, 2011 (updated 10 years ago) by Chemtable Software

The most convenient way to work with files in Windows 7 is Explorer. Using Explorer you can browser the contents of your hard drive and other storages connected to your computer, and also control these contents. Including renaming existing files or folders.

Renaming a single file or folder is the easiest operation. Right-click the file with the mouse and select the “Rename” command in the drop-down menu. You should see an edit box in place of the file’s name. You can edit the name of the file using this edit box. If you want to apply changes, press Enter or click with the mouse somewhere outside the box. If you want to exit editing and abandon all changes, press the Esc button.

There is one more way to rename a file or folder. First, select the desired object by clicking it and then click its name with the left mouse button. Don’t confuse it with the double-click that simply runs a file or opens a folder. There should be a small pause between the selection click and the click on the name. Finally, there is a third way. Simply select the file and press F2.

Windows 7 also features a way to rename a group of file or folders. Here is how it works. First, a user should select in Explorer all files and folder he needs to rename using Shift and Ctrl buttons. Then he should open an edit box with one of the methods described above, and type a new name. After the changes have been applied, Windows 7 automatically assigns the chosen name to all selected objects adding a sequence number in parentheses (to avoid files with duplicate file name and extension).

Note that you can’t change a file extension using the above methods. The extension depends on type of files, and the edit box accepts only the name part of the file name. Even if you manually type an extension after the period symbol, it won’t work.