Can we change the upper/lower case of filenames in Windows Explorer?

[seymoria]

Hi.

When I try to change the case from upper to lower or vice versa of filenames n windows explorer, the changes are not accepted. Also, adding or deleting of spaces in existing filename words is also not being accepted. I have admin privileges.

Thank you for help.

 

[Kari]

Hi Seymoria, welcome to the Seven Forums.

Filenames in Windows Explorer are not case sensitive. This means that for Windows, the filenames ThisIsMyDocument.doc, THISISMYDOCUMENT.DOC and tHiSiSmYdOcUmEnT.DoC are all the same, the file would be found and can be referred to using any of these or any other combination of upper and lower case letters, as long as the name itself stays the same.

Therefore, if you have a file document_1.doc but you'd like to change the first letter to upper case D, selecting rename and changing the first d to D does nothing. Windows simply does not understand it, for it there was no change as the first letter did not change.

You need to work around this by renaming the file first to something else, then rename it again to Document_1.doc, this time using the upper case D. I use a neat trick here, changing the first letter from lower to upper case: I select rename, delete just the first letter of the filename, the one with lower case, then rename again this time entering the upper case first letter.

Kari

 

[seymoria]

Thank you for your welcome message. I hope to have a useful experience here.

I have been using Windows XP for many years and this problem was never there. So I am sure there must be some setting in Windows 7 for case sensitive typing of filenames.

I am already doing it the way you suggested but I have to delete the whole word and retype it which takes more time for maybe 1000+ files names. I am just doing it for better presentation of my filenames.

 

[Kari]

I can understand your frustration. However, there really is nothing you can do for this. Last post in this short thread gives a good explanation: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/278918-making-windows-7-case-sensitive-possible.html

Kari

 

[Wandering one]

I don't think you have to delete the whole name. Just select rename and use the LEFT ARROW only to go to the first letter and delete it. Do the same thing again and put whatever you want. The arrow key will prevent the whole name delete. Might also be an idea to check mark HIDE EXTENTIONS OF KNOWN FILE TYPES FIRST. This will prevent an accidental ext change this may cause grief.
Art.

 

[Kari]

I don't think you have to delete the whole name. Just select rename and use the LEFT ARROW only to go to the first letter and delete it. Do the same thing again and put whatever you want. The arrow key will prevent the whole name delete. Might also be an idea to check mark HIDE EXTENTIONS OF KNOWN FILE TYPES FIRST. This will prevent an accidental ext change this may cause grief.
Art.

As I told in my first post in this thread:

I use a neat trick here, changing the first letter from lower to upper case: I select rename, delete just the first letter of the filename, the one with lower case, then rename again this time entering the upper case first letter.

 

[Bultro]

Changing only the case of a filename actually works; the change is just not shown.
Refresh the folder (F5) and you'll see the new filename.

 

[GuccizBud]

I was looking for something else pertaining to this subject, but stopped here and read this one anyway, because I was immediately "Wtf?" when I saw it. So I gotta tell everyone, I don't know what I'm doing different than you all for whom this is an issue, but I rename Windows 7 (Pro 64-bit) file names from upper to lower or vice-versa all the time, have done so for years, and have yet to see the behavior you're describing.   Heck I went and tested it just before posting this, thinking "am I going nuts here or what?" since all of you obviously didn't make this up.

To be clear : I'll use Kari's example (second post in thread) :  if I have a file called ThisIsMyDocument.doc and rename it (using either "right-click Rename" or hitting F2) to THISISMYDOCUMENT.DOC, the file actually gets renamed to THISISMYDOCUMENT.DOC, and if I then rename it to tHiSiSmYdOcUmEnT.DoC, it actually gets renamed to tHiSiSmYdOcUmEnT.DoC. In fact I just went and entered this very example to be absolutely 100% certain, and yup, works fine. Always has... that's why I'm really curious now to find out what's different in my case that allows it to work.

I don't have a clue, but I can't believe I'm the only one for whom this works fine! Where I actually see the exact behavior you describe is on my Android device, through any file manager... I gotta do exactly what was described here, i.e. going through an intermediary modification first and only then going back to the original name but with the modified case. Never had in problem in Windows though, go figure.

 

[gini]

I'm confused, too! I do know you can't save two distinct files with the same alpha characters but different case, at least not in Word, text editors, etc. That may be when the "tricks" are needed! But I can easily change the case of existing files as described by GuccizBud. (Or, GUCCIZbUD . . . )

 

[Pyprohly]

There's no need to be suspicious about the information in this thread; it dates back almost two years old now. And we all know how quickly technology and its related information changes.

I never saw Kari's facts regarding the renaming issue to be consistently correct, or ever correct in practise, because, I too, was never ever able to experience or replicate the renaming behaviour he claims exists. I presume that Kari's explanation was based off information that was relevant at the time of early 2014, despite never remembering such an issue.

Though, I do recall a time where if you were to rename a file to the same name but just with different capitalisation, Windows Explorer will not show those changes until one refreshes the Explorer window. Exactly how Bultro, in this thread, describes.

Renaming items in Windows 7 seems to work flawlessly now though. No need to perform double renames, no need for a refresh of anything. Renames work first try now. At least from my recent experiences of Windows 7.

If you still feel alone in all this renaming confusion, GuccizBud, feel invited to create a poll on this topic, "do file renames work for you?".

 

[Cool Javelin]

Windows is a funny beast as far as explorer is concerned (actually it's funny all over, but that is another topic.)

I have been experiencing issues changing the case of filenames also. Windows doesn't care, but my OCD does.

I think what is going on is caching or indexing. Windows will cache filenames in a couple of places, one is an index, another is a simple cache in explorer itself and this may be causing confusion.

If indexing is enabled, Explorer will read the filename from the index, not the drive. When you change the case of a filename, I think the drive gets changed, but Windows thinks nothing had changed so the index doesn't get updated.

This is why when you actually change the name of the file it works as advertised. The name change forces the index to be updated.

For example, open a command prompt and head to the folder in question.

type "dir this*" (without quotes) and check the case. I think the DOS prompt will show you reality although I can't say for sure.

I have turned off indexing for this (and all other) drives and I think that may be adding a wrench into this topic. I don't know if indexing interferes with the DOS listing, but I bet it is getting in the way of Explorer.

Could each of you please let us know if you have indexing enabled or not.

I have found that indexing doesn't give as much of a performance increase as Msoft would have you believe. Indexing itself takes time to do, and uses resources (memory) to do it. Maybe if you have a folder with 10's of thousands of files it may help, but my personal experience is it makes no performance difference, and uses resources I'd rather use elsewhere.

Mark.

 

[GuccizBud]

 

Could each of you please let us know if you have indexing enabled or not.

Enabled in my case, and I posted in this thread about not having problems with the whole uppercase/lowercase renaming thing in Windows 7 Explorer.  ( ⁠And just btw, Windows 7 extended support ends in 6 months, for anyone like me who needs to be dragged kicking and screaming to Windows 10. That means no more Windows Updates after mid-January, 2020, leaving our systems more vulnerable to malicious attacks like ransomware, because newly discovered vulnerabilities in Windows 7 won't get addressed by Microsoft. This is really the subject of another thread, but since we're talking about Windows 7 ⁠. ⁠. ⁠. ⁠).

I have found that indexing doesn't give as much of a performance increase as Msoft would have you believe.

It makes a huge difference if you have a lot of data. I have multiple data drives and I can actually tell if I forgot to index one of them from the length of time it takes to search that drive. It no doubt depends on how much data there is, with how much indexing will help being proportional to how much data you have; in my case it's thousands of data files spread over multiple drives.
 

 

[Cool Javelin]

GuccizBud:

This is getting a little off topic, but here we are...

I am totally in agreement with you on leaving Win7 kicking and screaming. I loathe Win10. (not to mention, I'd like to not give Msoft more of my money for another 4 copies of Win10.) I had the same emotional resistance when forced to upgrade from XP. More features, more security more overhead slower operation...

Yes, Support will end soon, but keep in mind, Win7 is very mature. As such, updates are coming out very slowly. I just did a quick DuckDuckGo search and see they haven't released an update since mid 2016. That's quite a while.

Just because support ends doesn't mean your copy of (updated) Windows will suddenly become a security risk.

I would think 99.9% of security risks would have already been handled by now.

Not really the case with XP. XP's IE could only go as high as 8 and that had some flaws they just never figured out.

Most security intrusions are from emails with links you shouldn't click. I would think buffer overruns and other security flaws are pretty much weeded out by now and Win7 will be secure for a very long time still.

Also, I am using Msoft Security Essentials. Will updates for that end too? I bet not as MSE is still used in the newer versions of Windows.

Mark.

 

[GuccizBud]

Re: Cool Javelin

Not talking about a major update to the operating system itself, I'm talking about the updates that get delivered through Windows Update. Those are monthly, second Tuesday of every month I believe it is... they are still going on, and it is THOSE that will end.

Something you may not know ⁠:  as you said, it's a mature operating system, which is why the majority of those updates every month are security patches. A security patch comes about because someone figured out a vulnerability in Windows that can be exploited... then a Windows Update comes out that patches Windows and "heals" that vulnerability so it can't get exploited anymore.

Here's the thing: those vulnerabilities never get fully accounted for, meaning new ones will always be found, because there are a lot of very, very clever hackers . . . that's why, 10 years after its release, vulnerabilities are still being found in Win 7 and still being patched and delivered to you by Microsoft via Windows Update. And it's not like there's any good reason to think that no further exploits can ever be found after support for Win 7 ends in 6 months.

So you see, that's why Windows 7 systems will be vulnerable after support ends; it's not a question of "if" they will be, they absolutely will be. I'm not trying to alarm anyone, and, truth be told, Microsoft has in the past come to the rescue of dead operating systems when a serious threat occurs (they patched XP and Vista, along with Win 7, in 2017 I believe it was, though I can't remember the name of the threat), and sometimes one of the major cybersecurity players like Kaspersky will figure out a patch that everyone can use . . . but there's no denying that, generally speaking, an unsupported operating system makes an easier target than a fully supported one.

'Kay, now we're completely off-topic, so I should probably disconnect at this point before I get banned or something, lol.