AS-File Renamer

AS-File Renamer is a straightforward tool that can rename a batch of files using numerical incrementation. Its main advantage is that it can automatically set the number of digits by taking into account the total files: one digit for up to 9 files, two digits for up to 99 files, and so on. It can be used for organizing digital camera photos, for example.

There is no installation pack involved, which makes this utility portable. You can drop its downloaded files in a custom location on the disk or a removable storage unit to directly launch AS-File Renamer on any computer with minimum effort. It doesn't make any modifications to the Windows registry.

As far as the interface goes, the application adopts a small window that shows just a few options. All you have to do is specify the directory whose files you want to rename, establish a file filter, set the new file name, and click a button to swiftly applies all changes.

The program doesn't have a user manual included in the downloaded package and, although it has only a handful of options, it's necessary to perform several tests to find out the various naming modes available. For instance, the *.JPG file filter is displayed by default, so you may be inclined to believe that AS-File Renamer can only rename JPG images. In fact, it can rename any kind of file, regardless of its content type or extension.

If the filter field is left empty, the tool shows an error dialog, urging you to specify a filter. The workaround to rename all files from the specified directory is by typing *.*. Alternatively, you can rename just one file by entering its extension and name (partial matches aren't accepted), rename all files with a specific format (*.format), or all files that have the same name but different extensions (filename.*).

Concerning the strings, it's possible to define a base name made from one or more words, and set the # symbol anywhere: as a prefix or suffix, or between any two characters or words. Otherwise, you can keep only the # symbol in the string field if you want to use numerical incrementation without additional characters.

It may be a bit confusing at first, but AS-File Renamer proves to be a practical tool for batch renaming files using numbers, which focuses on speed and auto-detects how many digits to add.