You're right, it appears to be an exact character replacement only. It goes
the other way as well, if the target name is shorter, the remaining
characters on the original are carried over as well, ie:

ren test*.docx wor*.docx

results in a file name of wort1.docx. I'll see what I can find out about
this.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"SixSigmaGuy" <Rick@RYTEway.com> wrote in message
news:416DD98E-A94C-4DD1-8A81-5F43854F36FF@microsoft.com...
> Your test didn't test the same thing. You had 5 character filenames
> before and after the rename, i.e., the lenght of the filename didn't
> change. In the case described in help, they renamed 6 character filenames
> to 7 character filenames. It should have worked as they described, but it
> didn't. Try the test again, renaming SMITH?.DOC to SMYTHE?.doc. It used
> to work fine; now it doesn't.
>
> "Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:OrGIFSIuIHA.548@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Works fine for me here. Looking at your DIR results, it appears the
>> wildcard character, "a", wasn't carried on the first one. I just
>> replicated your test and here are the results:
>>
>> Directory of C:\TestREN
>>
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM <DIR> .
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM <DIR> ..
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM 9,863 Test1.docx
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM 9,887 Test2.docx
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM 9,895 Test3.docx
>> 3 File(s) 29,645 bytes
>> 2 Dir(s) 77,118,971,904 bytes free
>>
>> C:\TestREN>ren test*.docx work*.docx
>>
>> C:\TestREN>dir
>> Volume in drive C has no label.
>> Volume Serial Number is 2176-638D
>>
>> Directory of C:\TestREN
>>
>> 05/17/2008 09:12 PM <DIR> .
>> 05/17/2008 09:12 PM <DIR> ..
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM 9,863 work1.docx
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM 9,887 work2.docx
>> 05/17/2008 09:11 PM 9,895 work3.docx
>> 3 File(s) 29,645 bytes
>> 2 Dir(s) 77,118,185,472 bytes free
>>
>> --
>> Best of Luck,
>>
>> Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
>> http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
>> Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
>> My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com
>>
>> "SixSigmaGuy" <Rick@RYTEway.com> wrote in message
>> news:C1B5E01F-D343-4B9B-9032-11D174212563@microsoft.com...
>> I'm having trouble with the REN command with wild cards as used from the
>> command prompt.
>>
>> For example, in the REN command help, it says:
>>
>> "For example, if you had files that are named smitha.doc, smithb.doc, and
>> smithc.doc, you could use the ren smith*.doc smythe*.doc command. All
>> file names automatically show the new spelling, and are renamed
>> smythea.doc, smytheb.doc, and smythec.doc."
>>
>> If I try the example, exactly as described, I don't end up with
>> smythea.doc, smytheb.doc, and smythec.doc.
>>
>> Instead, when I create three files named smitha.doc, smithb.doc, and
>> smithc.doc and then execute the command:
>>
>> ren smith*.doc smythe*.doc
>>
>> I get:
>>
>> C:\TestREN>ren smith*.doc smythe*.doc
>> A duplicate file name exists, or the file
>> cannot be found.
>> A duplicate file name exists, or the file
>> cannot be found.
>>
>> C:\TestREN>dir
>> Volume in drive C is OS
>> Volume Serial Number is 0A07-21F5
>>
>> Directory of C:\TestREN
>>
>> 05/17/2008 04:04 PM <DIR> .
>> 05/17/2008 04:04 PM <DIR> ..
>> 05/17/2008 04:03 PM 0 Smithb.doc
>> 05/17/2008 04:03 PM 0 Smithc.doc
>> 05/17/2008 04:03 PM 0 smythe.doc
>> 0 File(s) 0 bytes
>> 2 Dir(s) 48,010,428,416 bytes free
>>
>> C:\TestREN>
>>
>> This isn't how I recall REN working in previous versions of Windows.
>> Anyone know if the REN command has changed or been broken?
>