In computing, ren
(or rename
) is a command in various DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windowscommand line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM
, cmd.exe
, 4DOS, 4NT and Windows PowerShell. It is used to rename files and in some implementations also directories. It can also move a file to a new path, if it is on the same device. It is analogous to the Unix mv
command. RT-11, RSX-11 and OpenVMS also provide the rename
command which can be contracted to ren
.
In Windows PowerShell, ren is a predefined command alias for the Rename-Item
Cmdlet which basically serves the same purpose.
Another example. This will rename a default video found in Windows 7 with a new name: