How to Change File Extension of Several Files in Windows

Originally posted on July 14, 2018 @ 9:20 pm

As a Windows OS user, surely you are dealing with various extension files that exist. Whether it’s an image file, audio, video, or something else. In one or two occasions, you have wished to change the file extension of some files on your Windows PC; you can quickly achieve this if it is just one file but happens when you want the effect on more files? Using a manual is more complicated and it takes a longer time but we have two easy methods on “How to Change File Extension of Several Files in Windows”.

Also read: How to fix windows not showing thumbnails

Here, we have listed a few easy ways to achieve this. This article will be very detailed so you don’t need an additional guide to practice the methods listed here.

How to Change File Extension of Several Files in Windows

For Example, Here We Will Change Image File with Extension From .png to .jpg.

Here we will change the file extensions of all the Image files on a folder from png to jpeg. You can achieve this using two different methods which would be explained succinctly in this article.

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Method 1: Using Command Line Prompt (CMD)

1. All you have to do is to combine the files you want to change the extensions by simply moving them into a Folder.

Here is a screenshot of the contents of the folder containing the files with the extension. Png 

2. Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard. Then point the mouse pointer to the folder containing the images you want to change the extension file.
3. Right-click on the folder and select Open command window here.
   
   
4. A Command Line Prompt window will appear.
5. Now, to change the file extensions to the one you want, write down the code below.

ren *. (Current extension file ) * Space. (File extension you want).

It should look like this – ren* .png* .jpg

From the example above, it shows that we changed the extensions of all the image files in a selected folder from .png to jpg.

Explaining the code above ren* .png* .jpg

• ren is a code from windows that serves to rename or rename files, folders, etc.
• The asterisk symbol (*) is a code from windows that serves to select all the file name or folder in question.

After you type the above code, next is to press the ENTER button on your keyboard.

If you entered the command correctly, all the image files on the selected folder will be changed from .png to .jpg in a matter of seconds.

Method 2: Using the .bat file

Here is another method to change the extensions of your files on windows.

1. First, you should go to the folder containing the files or the images you want to change the extension.
2. Open the folder and create a create a new text document. To do this; when you open the folder, right-click your mouse and point it to the new option/roll, then Text Document. – Screenshot below.
   
3. Now, type in the code as exactly shown below on the notepad you created.

 ren * .png * .jpg 

After you have typed in the code above, locate and select “Save As” option on the notepad menu to save the file (you can save the file with any name of your choice). Also, don’t forget to leave the “Save as type” option to be All Files, and file extension must be changed to .bat

Ensure the file is saved on the folder or directory containing the files you wish to change their extensions. If these processes are done correctly, the file icon that was shaped text will be changed to as below.

You can see that the extension file in the image below is still in .png format.

Run the .bat file and voila. Now, all the image files with the .png extension will be changed to .jpg in a few seconds.

Wrap Up:

These are our two easy methods on “How to Change the File Extension of Several Files in Windows”. Both methods discussed here are not only applicable in converting .png to .jpg or vice-versa, it also applies to other file extensions; we only used .png and .jpg for the sake of this tutorial.

If you are still confused or have something to ask about the tutorial above. Kindly drop a comment on this post and we’ll get to you in a jiffy.