Rename-Item

Rename-Item
    [-Path] <String>
    [-NewName] <String>
    [-Force]
    [-PassThru]
    [-Credential <PSCredential>]
    [-WhatIf]
    [-Confirm]
    [-UseTransaction]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Rename-Item
    [-NewName] <String>
    -LiteralPath <String>
    [-Force]
    [-PassThru]
    [-Credential <PSCredential>]
    [-WhatIf]
    [-Confirm]
    [-UseTransaction]
    [<CommonParameters>]

The Rename-Item cmdlet changes the name of a specified item. This cmdlet does not affect the content of the item being renamed.

You can't use Rename-Item to move an item, such as by specifying a path together with the new name. To move and rename an item, use the Move-Item cmdlet.

This command renames the file daily_file.txt to monday_file.txt.

Rename-Item -Path "c:\logfiles\daily_file.txt" -NewName "monday_file.txt"

You can't use Rename-Item to both rename and move an item. Specifically, you can't supply a path for the value of the NewName parameter, unless the path is identical to the path specified in the Path parameter. Otherwise, only a new name is permitted.

This example attempts to rename the project.txt file in the current directory to old-project.txt in the D:\Archive directory. The result is the error shown in the output.

Rename-Item -Path "project.txt" -NewName "d:\archive\old-project.txt"

Rename-Item : can't rename because the target specified represents a path or device name.
At line:1 char:12
+ Rename-Item <<<<  -path project.txt -NewName d:\archive\old-project.txt
+ CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Rename-Item], PS>  Move-Item -Path "project.txt" -De
stination "d:\archive\old-project.txt"

This example renames a registry key from Advertising to Marketing. When the command is complete, the key is renamed, but the registry entries in the key are unchanged.

Rename-Item -Path "HKLM:\Software\MyCompany\Advertising" -NewName "Marketing"

This example renames all the *.txt files in the current directory to *.log.

Get-ChildItem *.txt

    Directory: C:\temp\files

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
-a----        10/3/2019   7:47 AM           2918 Friday.TXT
-a----        10/3/2019   7:46 AM           2918 Monday.Txt
-a----        10/3/2019   7:47 AM           2918 Wednesday.txt

Get-ChildItem *.txt | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name -replace '.txt','.log' }
Get-ChildItem *.log

    Directory: C:\temp\files

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
-a----        10/3/2019   7:47 AM           2918 Friday.log
-a----        10/3/2019   7:46 AM           2918 Monday.log
-a----        10/3/2019   7:47 AM           2918 Wednesday.log

The Get-ChildItem cmdlet gets all the files in the current folder that have a .txt file extension then pipes them to Rename-Item. The value of NewName is a script block that runs before the value is submitted to the NewName parameter.

In the script block, the $_ automatic variable represents each file object as it comes to the command through the pipeline. The script block uses the -replace operator to replace the file extension of each file with .log. Notice that matching using the -replace operator is not case sensitive.

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, -InformationAction, -InformationVariable, -OutBuffer, -OutVariable, -PipelineVariable, -ProgressAction, -Verbose, -WarningAction, and -WarningVariable. For more information, see about_CommonParameters.

You can pipe a string that contains a path to this cmdlet.

This cmdlet generates an object that represents the renamed item, if you specify the PassThru parameter. Otherwise, this cmdlet does not generate any output.

Rename-Item is designed to work with the data exposed by any provider. To list the providers available in your session, type Get-PsProvider. For more information, see about_Providers.