How to remove spaces from file names (in bulk)

Question

How to remove spaces (not replace with underscores) from several thousand files in bulk in Windows? Can I do this from the DOS command?

Currently:

fi         


        

Answer 1

The problem i have faced is that there is a possibility that there is already a file with the name you try to give to the new file (eg if there are 2 files in the folder named "file one.txt" and "file_one.txt" when you try to replace the spaces with underscores, one file will replace the other). So I made this script that checks if the new name already exists and if so places a number at the end of the file name (adds 1 to the number until there is no other file with that name). Instructions about what to change are at the top (commended out lines). Do not store the batch file in the same folder you have the files to be renamed if you use *.* option. I hope this helps.

@echo off

REM Instructions
REM This script repaces spaces from file names with underscores. 
REM If you want to just remove the spaces uncomment lines 30 and 52 and comment out the lines 29 and 51. 
REM set the following parameters. 
REM pb is the folder containing the files we want to rename (fullpath)
REM tm is a temporary folder that will be created and deleted. Just put a folder that does not exist and is not used by anything else (fullpath).
REM all is the file type you want to raname. E.g. *.* for every file, *.txt for TXTs, *.pdf for PDFs etc 
REM you don't have to change anything else

set pb=
set tm=
set all=*.*

set pa=%pb%%all%

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

cd /d %pa%

set /a count=1

if not exist %tm% mkdir %tm%

for /f %%F in (%pa%) do (

    set name=%%~nF
    set name2=!name: =_!
    REM set name2=!name: =!
    set name3=!name2!%%~xF

    if !name2! == %%~nF ( 
        move /y %%~dpF\!name3! %tm%\ >nul
    ) else (
            if not exist %%~dpF\!name3! ( 
                if not exist %tm%\!name3! (
                    ren "%%F" "!name3!" 
                    move /y %%~dpF\!name3! %tm%\ >nul
                )
        )   
    ) 

)

:rename

for /f %%F in (%pa%) do (

    set name=%%~nF
    set name2=!name: =_!
    REM set name2=!name: =!
    set name4=!name2!%count%
    set name3=!name4!%%~xF

    if !name2! == %%~nF ( 
        move /y %%~dpF\!name3! %tm%\ >nul
    ) else (
            if not exist %%~dpF\!name3! ( 
                if not exist %tm%\!name3! (
                    ren "%%F" "!name3!" 
                    move /y %%~dpF\!name3! %tm%\ >nul
                )
        )   
    ) 

)

set /a count = %count% + 1

set /a loop = 0

for %%F in (%pa%) do (set /a loop = 1)

if %loop% equ 1 goto rename

move /y %tm%\%all% %pb% >nul

rmdir /s /q %tm%