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I am trying to rename all files and directories to lower and I found a powershell script here: Rename files to lowercase in Powershell

My favorite answer is the following because it is the cleanest and most concise answer. However, it does not include directory names and I don't have enough rep yet to respond to the comment

Get-ChildItem -r | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer } | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.FullName.ToLower() }

I don't know PowerShell and I don't intend to become proficient, please skip all the details I'm just looking for code to rename all my files and directories to lower and I don't need to know anything about how it works. I don't like the following solution because 1, it is too wordy and 2, it only does directory names and not file names.

Where-Object { $_.PSIsContainer -And $_.Name -CMatch "[A-Z]" } |
ForEach-Object {
    $NName = $_.Name.ToLowerInvariant()

    # Set temporary name to enable rename to the same name; Windows is not case sensitive
    $TempItem = Rename-Item -Path $_.FullName -NewName "x$NName" -PassThru

    Rename-Item -Path $TempItem.FullName -NewName $NName
}

I want one clean command to rename files and directories, similar to the first example, please

when i first wrote this, i just wanted to open powershell and paste a command. in hindsight, that is not most efficient way either. so i ended up saving each script (one for files, one for folders) into one .ps1 file that you put in whatever directory you want to lower, then right-click and "run with powershell" and it will rename all files and subdirectories

the script looks like this:

# files to lower
Get-ChildItem -r | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer } |
Rename-Item -NewName { $_.FullName.ToLower() }

# folders to lower
$fso = New-Object -ComObject Scripting.FileSystemObject
Get-ChildItem . -rec -dir |
ForEach-Object { $fso.MoveFolder($_.fullname, $_.Fullname.ToLower()) }
Kyle D
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  • @SantiagoSquarzon i just tested and i'm getting IO error "Rename-Item : Source and destination path must be different." – Kyle D Jan 02 '22 at 18:08
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    Well, I deleted my answer since it only works on Linux due to the OS case sensitivity. This is also relevant https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/12483, _`[Directory]::Move()` having the same behavior_ hence why we see this in PS seems like a great excuse to me. You probably are better of __using `ren` from CMD__ or for PS, rename the folder to a temporary name and rename back to lowercase which is honestly awful (this is what your second snippet is doing....) – Santiago Squarzon Jan 02 '22 at 19:47
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    no worries bro thanks for the follow up the git issue you linked explains what's happening well. it's just for my personal preference to have lower case and is not urgent – Kyle D Jan 02 '22 at 19:47

1 Answers1

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as you mentioned on your provided code, Windows is not a case sensitive OS, so you need to rename the directories to a temp name (for example insert a character after lowering it) then rename it again (by removing the inserted character)

i modified your line as follow to be able to lower both directories and files, please give it a try

Get-ChildItem -r  | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name.ToLower().Insert(0,'_') } -PassThru |  Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name.Substring(1) }
Mahmoud Moawad
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