Ant Renamer vs reNamerX

Ant Renamer is a free Windows program for applying rules to large batches of file and folder names. Its actions include changing extensions, replacing or inserting text, moving or deleting characters, numbering names, and changing letter case. It can build names from MP3 ID3 v1.1 tags, modification dates and times, EXIF information, regular expressions, or names in a supplied list or file. The program changes names only, not file contents. It supports Unicode names, including Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic characters, on NT systems. The interface is available in English and numerous other languages, including French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Tamil. Ant Renamer is free software under the GNU General Public License version 2 or, at the user’s option, a later version. Version 2.13.0 is offered as an installer and as a portable ZIP package. The project began in 2003 and is still maintained, though its maker describes it as based on old tools and not using newer Windows features. The maker points users to the included help file, online manuals, a forum, or email support.

reNamerX is a free desktop application for batch file renaming on Linux, macOS, and Windows. It applies text operations, case transformations, and sequential numbering to groups of files, and can process hundreds using consistent rules. A live preview shows the proposed filenames before changes are applied. More advanced options include regular expressions, date and time insertion, metadata such as creation date and size, and reusable rule presets. Users can select individual files or all files in a directory. Batch changes can be undone with Ctrl+Z, and the app also supports redo. Its interface has dark and cyberpunk theme options. The project is distributed under the MIT License, and the repository provides Windows MSI and EXE installer options. Windows installation requires Windows 10 or newer, a 64-bit operating system, at least 50MB of free disk space, and 4GB of recommended RAM. Building from source requires Node.js 16 or newer, npm or yarn, Rust and Cargo, and Git.