The Windows Explorer is an amazing beast, but (as with all Microsoft products) it is often most amazing because of the features it lacks rather than those it actually possesses. Over the years, things have improved, but I still find myself stumped when I cannot find a simple way to do one of those mindless, repetetive tasks that computers are supposed to be so good at.
File renaming, for example. I frequently send samples to a colleague for analysis. The results come back as a collection of files, named with my initials followed by a number. Samples are numbered very logically, from 1 (the first one I ever sent), increasing by 1 each time, to whatever ("n", as our mathematically inclined friends would say). Imagine my horror when my colleague went on holiday, and his boss processed the samples. The data was fine, but there was an unwanted hyphen between my initials and the number for each of the hundred or so files. No big deal, you may think. Yes, actually. When I placed these new files in the same folder as some older files, Windows (of course) sorted them differently. Yes, I could sort by date rather than name, but that only lasts until the files were modified and the sort date changed.
Having googled and failed to find a simple way of removing the errant hyphens, and not being prepared to manually rename each file, I did what any nerd would do: I wrote a few lines of code to do it for me. As is my way, I then turned these few lines into a simple program, so that the next time I needed to do this, I would be able to do it there and then, and I added in a few extra features that occurred to me as I coded. So FRapp was born, although at that point it used key presses to select the various options. It stayed that way for a couple of years, before I summoned up the enthusiasm to add in actually make it a proper Windows program.
I have used FRapp many times, to rename many files in many ways. So far, it has performed flawlessly and I have not lost a single file. But never say never! Unless you are completely mad, do not use FRapp on any file that is not safely backed up somewhere. I cannot be held responsible for any loss of data resulting from this program misbehaving. Protecting your files is your responsibility.
You can download a ZIP file containing everything you need. The program does not need formal installation: simply unzip the program's folder in any location you like, and run it. User preferences are stored on a per-user basis in the Application Data folder. Your Registry will not be accessed in any way.
A NOTE ABOUT NORTON: The "advanced" heuristic algorithms used by Norton antivirus will flag this program as a high risk to your system, and the program will be removed. Sadly, the expense of digitally signing my software is simply too high, so you will have to take my word for it that this program will not harm your system in any way, or steal your identity to allow me to live the high life on some tropical paradise island surrounded by dusky maidens. You can safely retrieve it from Norton's Quarantine, and exclude it from future scans.
Source code available on request.
Please let me know what you think of this program – good or bad! Please also let me know if you encounter any bugs. Full details of what you were doing at the time will be helpful in tracking down the mistake and squashing it good and proper.
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How I wasted my teenage years!
Letter Graph
Make your graphs more meaningful...
Colour Check
A colour sampling tool.
2048
My take on the game that is sweeping the nation!
FRapp
A file rename utility.
Magnifiques
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Textractor
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Tangler
A simple text reformatting tool.