In computing, ren (or rename) is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM, cmd.exe, 4DOS, 4NT and Windows PowerShell. It is used to rename computer files and in some implementations (such as AmigaDOS^[1]) also directories. It is analogous to the Unix mv command. However, unlike mv, ren cannot be used to move files, as a new directory for the destination file may not be used. Alternatively, move may be used if available. On versions of MS-DOS that do not support the move command (older than 6.00), the user would simply copy the file to a new destination, and then delete the original file. A notable exception to this rule is DOSBox, in which ren may be used to move a file, since move is not supported.

The command is available in the operating systems Digital Research CP/M,^[2] MP/M,^[3][4] Cromemco CDOS,^[5] MetaComCo TRIPOS,^[6] DOS, IBM OS/2,^[7] Microsoft Windows,^[8] ReactOS,^[9] SymbOS, and DexOS.

Multics includes a rename command to rename a directory entry. It can be contracted to rn.^[10]

Stratus OpenVOS,^[11] DEC RT-11,^[12] OS/8,^[13] RSX-11,^[14] Intel ISIS-II,^[15] iRMX 86,^[16] TOPS-20,^[17] Zilog Z80-RIO,^[18] TSC FLEX,^[19] Microware OS-9,^[20] DR FlexOS,^[21] IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS,^[22] HP MPE/iX,^[23] THEOS/OASIS,^[24] and OpenVMS^[25] also provide the rename command which in some cases can be contracted to ren.

The rename command is supported by Tim Paterson's SCP 86-DOS.^[26] On MS-DOS, the command is available in versions 1 and later.^[27] DR DOS 6.0 also includes an implementation of the ren and rename commands.^[28]

In Windows PowerShell, ren is a predefined command alias for the Rename-Item Cmdlet which basically serves the same purpose.^[29]

TSL PC-MOS includes an implementation of rename.^[30] Like the rest of the operating system, it is licensed under the GPL v3.^[31]

It is also available in the open source MS-DOS emulator DOSBox.

>ren filename newname
>ren *.htm *.doc

Another example. This will rename a default video found in Windows 7 with a new name:

>rename "C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos\Wildlife.wmv" "Wildlife2.wmv"

The first parameter may contain a drive and a path, but the second parameter must contain only the new filename.

To remove certain characters of a file name in Microsoft Windows command prompt (XP & Higher) :

>rename "abcd*.txt" "////*.txt"

This will remove abcd from the file name.

Notes:

1. Same number of / as the number of initial characters to remove.
2. Double quotes for both arguments.
3. It doesn't remove . from file name

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Guide to Windows Commands

• List of DOS commands
• List of PowerShell commands