How to rename multiple file extensions in Windows using Command Prompt

Ever had a bunch of files you wished to rename yet you felt the talk too daunting? I, for one, have a friend whose Samsung TV has an issue playing back videos with the MKV file extension. No doubt this particular Samsung TV and others predate the MKV video format by some good years. And software updates aren’t forthcoming.  The only workaround we could come up with was to rename these files to an older format, i.e MP4 or AVI. Batch renaming multiple files in Windows doesn’t actually require third-party software. All you need Matter of fact, we can show you how to do it in command prompt by yourself in a couple of steps. Here’s how:

Step 1:

For step one, we will select a folder with all the files we wish to rename. Any folders within that folder will not be renamed same as the rest.

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Renaming multiple files step 1

Step 2

The quickest way to open Command Prompt at this stage is to type ‘cmd’ in the Windows Address bar as shown below:

Press ‘ENTER’ after you are done.

Renaming multiple files step 2

Step 3

A Command Prompt window will pop up once you press ‘Enter’ in the previous step. From here, we can input commands that will affect the entire selected folder.

Renaming multiple files step 3

Step 4

Now type either of the following commands:

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ren *.* *.mkv

or…

ren *.mp4* *.mkv

or…

ren * *.mkv

Naturally, you can replace our sample extensions with whichever you wish to convert to. And from.

Renaming multiple files step 4

And here’s our result…

Done!

Renaming multiple files step 5

 

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