How to rename a file with the current date from the context menu in Explorer?

Question

I want to be able to rename any file or folder with the current date, so I added the following key value to the registry, to get this option to show up in the right-click context menu:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell

Cmd.exe /c ren %1 "sample".*

However, I couldn't find how to perform this with the current date. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

To get the current date in the Windows command prompt, use the following:

date /t

To rename a file with the current date, you'll need to use the for construct to capture the output of the date command and pass it to ren:

for /f "useback delims=" %x in (`date /t`) do ren oldfile.foo %x

Note, however, that the output of date can, depending on your regional settings, contain symbols that cannot be used in a filename, for instance the slash (/). If so, you have two options:

• Format the date such that it is suitable for use in a filename; see this post at Stack Overflow.

• Use PowerShell instead. The following should do the trick:

  Rename-Item oldfile.foo (Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd)
  

  That example uses the ISO date format. See Formatting Dates and Times for more information.

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To add a new context menu entry to all files, do the following:

1. Open regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell

2. Add a new key and set its name to whatever you want the menu item to be called

3. Add a new key under that, with the name command

4. Double-click the (Default) value under the command key and set its value as follows:

   • if using the regular command prompt (note the double percentage signs):

     cmd /c for /f "useback delims=" %%x in (`date /t`) do ren "%1" %%x
     

   • if using PowerShell:

     cmd /c powershell Rename-Item "%1" (Get-Date -Format yyyy-MM-dd)