How do I rename multiple files on Windows?

Question

I have 2800 files, all of whose names start with a four-digit number followed by " - ", and I want to delete all those leading numbers from all the files, leaving only the alphanumeric file names¹.  How can I do this?
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¹ Some of the filenames contain numerals after the " - ".

Answer 1

PowerShell! Something like this should do what you want it to do. It will take teh first 7 characters off of the file name and rename it (7 characters is 4 digit number + 1 space + 1 hyphen + 1 space)

This relies on you having a definite pattern of "0000 - " before the filename and won't play nicely if it results in duplicate file names, but is a good jumping off point.

Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath "D:\bigfolderofstuff\" | ForEach { Rename-Item -LiteralPath $_.FullName -NewName ($_.Name).Substring(7) }

Answer 2

If you are running windows, In the past when I encounter similar problems I have used "Batch renaming tool" with considerable success.

Can be downloaded here, it is free and it works:

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php