Batch Renamer and Mover (Bram) is a program for Windows that you can use to rename and move files. The program needs to be installed on the system. Please note that it requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.

When you start it you see a folder and file browser plus some options in the main interface. The program assumes that you want to rename files. You need to locate the up arrow button next to the Apply button to change that. Available for option there are Move or Copy and Rename, Rename then Copy or only move or copy related operations.

You then start by selecting a root folder for the operation. Only this root folder will be processed by default. You can make changes to the behavior in the configuration bar. Here it is possible to enable subfolder support and to filter for specific file types only.

The renaming options are displayed on the right side of the footer toolbar. Here it is possible to set the new naming scheme for the files. The program supports variables that you can add to the name with a click on the Parts button. Available for selection are for instance the current name, a number, the date or the parent folder.

A click on Preview displays the new name next to the old one in the file listing. This is handy as it allows you to make modifications to the name scheme in case the new name is not after your liking.

A click on apply processes the files in the selected folder structure. If you have selected to copy or move you will see a folder browser window where you can select the target folder for those operations.

Bram creates a log file of the operation automatically. The program has a few usability issues and nuisances that I’d like to point out. The program window (default 1024×768) for one can only be increased in window size. It is not possible to reduce the size of the window.

The arrow button hides the operations, and it is likely that many users won’t click on it to see what it does. Lastly an option to restore previously made changes would come in handy.

Bram regardless of that is a handy file renaming and moving software for the Windows operating system. Windows users can download the application directly from the developer website.

I know quite a few users who drop the selection into the same folder in this case to cancel the drag and drop operation. Since the files and folders exist in that folder, the operation is canceled and no files are added, moved or copied. When I’m saying moved or copied I mean that you can select the type of operation after you have started dragging files around but before you dropped them in a new location.

If you drop them while holding down the Shift key on the computer keyboard you move the files, while dropping them without additional key will copy the files.

But it is not always this easy. Especially not if you mistakenly drop the selection on a folder in the Windows Explorer location. If you do that, files and folders get moved or copied into that folder.

The correct way of canceling a drag and drop operation is to click the right mouse button once you have started to drag the files and folders around.

Windows will automatically cancel the operation so that everything is returned to its initial state. This only works for drag and drop operations in Windows Explorer, and not in third party applications like Firefox or Google Chrome.

Do you use drag and drop in Windows Explorer? If so, did you ever encounter a situation where you had to cancel the operation?

The result is always the same: You need to manual fix the copy job by locating the files that were not copied properly. Sometimes you need to stop an application from running or accessing a file before you can do that.

WinMend File Copy is a free program for the Windows operating system that not only promises to copy files up to 300% faster than Windows Explorer but also to keep a queue of all files and folders that need copying. That’s handy if Windows throws errors during the copying or moving of files.

Using a program like WinMend File Copy on the other hand may not be as comfortable as using Windows Explorer as it does not integrate into Windows Explorer. This makes the application less usable for copying a limited amount of files.

The copy software shines when it comes to copying large files and lots of files. A copy job consists of one or multiple files or folders that you add to the program with the help of buttons in the interface. The only other setting that is mandatory is the destination folder that you need to select as well.

WinMend File Copy can be configured to overwrite, skip or match and overwrite files of the same name. The only other setting available is the buffer size for the process which is set to 10 MB by default.

Another benefit of WinMend File Copy is the ability to copy files from multiple folders and locations in one go which is not possible in Windows Explorer.

Windows users who are looking for a queue based copy program for Windows can download the latest version of WinMend File Copy from the developer website. The program is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

If you do that in Windows Explorer you are in for some heavy selecting and copying as every folder needs to be processed independently from each other. Even worse if its to complicated to select all the files in the specific folder at once.

Piky Basket is a free Windows Explorer extension that makes it a lot easier to copy or move files from multiple folders simultaneously. The principle is simple. Piky Basket functions as a clipboard that remembers the files that are added to it by the user. The user can – at any time – copy or move the files that have been added to that clipboard to another location. The above process would therefor be optimized to only one copy or move operation at the end of the selection process.

The program can also be used to copy all file paths to the clipboard or to open a command prompt at the current location.

Piky Basket 2.0 is freeware. Version 3.0 has been integrated into a suite of applications which is sold at the developer’s website. The free version of the tool can be downloaded here.

Update: Piky Basket is no longer available. The developers have mode the program functionality into the commercial software Copywhiz.

A free alternative is Smart Copy Tool which is compatible with all versions of Windows provided that the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 is installed on the system. The program can filter for specific file names or file extensions which can then be copied to another folder with a few clicks.

It can for example be used by P2P users to move all the files that are located in subdirectories in the download folder to the main download folder to get better and faster access to the files. Other possibilities are to move photos that have been transferred from a digital camera into one main folder as these photos are usually stored in subfolders named after the date they have been taken.

Suction is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that supports drag and drop and context menu operations. It will automatically move all files that are located in subfolders into the main folder. The subfolders will be removed in the process so that the root folder will only contain all files that have been located in subfolders.

The user can either drag and drop a folder into the application’s interface or right-click a folder after activating the context menu option in the program’s options. Duplicate files will either be renamed automatically by the software program or deleted automatically.

This can be handy in situations where files usually land in an upload directory with limited space or to automatically transfer files from a directory to another on the computer’s hard drive. P2P users might also like the idea of moving finished downloads from the download directory to another directory.

Move Out uses rules that specify names and extensions that should be moved automatically from monitored folders to others. The process of setting up rules does not take long with the changes taking effect immediately. The user configuring the rules has to add a source and destination folder as well as names and file extensions that should be moved and optionally those that should be ignored. Wildcard usage is possible with the easiest being *.* which will move all files that appear in the source folder to the destination folder. File replacement rules can be set as well in case a file with the same name exists in the destination folder.

The program will check for matching files every three seconds by default. This value can be changed in the options of the program to in case a faster or slower speed is required.

Whatever it is sorting them automatically is probably the wiser choice than performing that task manually. I Like To Move It is a small portable software program for the Windows operating system that can automatically move files and folders to another location. A ini file is used to define the rules. Thankfully it is usually only once necessary to edit the ini files to suit individual needs. Files and folders will be separated by default. All folders are moved with the files they are containing to the location and placed into a main _folders directory. The files on the other hand are moved based on rules defined in the ini of the program.

About 20 different file extensions are already defined in the ini files. It will for instance move multimedia files into appropriate folders. This includes audio files like mp3 or ogg into the audio folder or doc and pdf files into the document folder. Executable files are handled differently as the program recognizes files like ini or cmd files that belong to that executable file. These will also be moved.

It is possible to add additional extensions easily in the ini that can either be placed in one of the existing folders or into a new one. Files will be overwritten by default if they are found in the destination folder. This can also be changed in the ini. The process of moving does not take long and the application can be closed after the process has finished.