RarRenamer.NET

Modern .NET 8 WPF rewrite of RarRenamer - 60x faster performance

A high-performance WPF application built with .NET 8 to rename RAR archives based on their internal folder structure.

⚡ This is the actively maintained version. The original PowerShell version is now deprecated.

🚀 Why RarRenamer.NET?

60x Faster - Scan 3000 files in ~1 minute (vs 30 minutes in PowerShell)
Modern UI - Dark theme WPF interface with responsive design
Single-Click Selection - No double-clicking needed
Instant Updates - Real-time prefix/suffix without rescanning
Native Performance - Uses 7-Zip CLI for ultra-fast scanning
Cancellable Operations - Stop scans anytime with Cancel button
Smart Drive Detection - Automatically optimizes for SSD/HDD

Features

🚀 Performance

Ultra-fast scanning: Uses 7-Zip CLI for 10-20x speed improvement
Instant undo: Restore operations in <1 second
Real-time prefix/suffix updates: No rescanning needed
Asynchronous operations: UI stays responsive during all operations
Smart parallelism: Automatically adjusts to drive type (SSD: 4-32 threads, HDD: 4-8 threads)
Manual thread control: Adjust parallelism with ▲▼ buttons (hold for continuous increment)
Timeout protection: 60-second timeout per file prevents hanging (optimized for slow drives)
Batch UI updates: Updates in groups of 50 for better performance

✅ File Management

2-Tab Interface: Separate tabs for Scan and Queue
Queue System: Add scanned files to a persistent queue
Individual checkbox for each file in the grid
Select All / Deselect All buttons for quick selection
Standard checkbox behavior (click only on checkbox, not entire row)
Pause button to pause scans and resume later
Cancel button to stop scans anytime
Queue persistence in queue.json (survives reboots)
Selections preserved after undo operations
Precise control over which files to rename

📝 Logging & Rollback System

Real-time Logging: Live console in the UI showing all operations
Debug File Export: Optional debug_log.txt with complete details
Automatic Logging: All rename operations logged to rename_log.json
Detailed Log Entries: Timestamp, old/new paths, success status, error messages
Selective Undo: Choose which operations to undo with checkboxes
Persistent Log: Works across application restarts
Smart Refresh: After undo, list refreshes instantly without rescanning
Queue persistence: Queue saved in queue.json and survives reboots

🎨 Prefix & Suffix System

Prefix Input: Add text before the folder name
Suffix Input: Add text after the folder name
Direct Concatenation: Text added exactly as typed (no automatic dashes or spaces)
Instant Testing: After scanning once, test different prefixes/suffixes instantly!

Requirements

Essential

Windows 10/11 (Recommended) or Windows 7 (with additional setup)
7-Zip installed (Download) - Required for scanning
.NET 8 Runtime (Download) - Only for framework-dependent version

Windows 7 (Requires Additional Steps)

If you want to run on Windows 7, you'll need:

Install 7-Zip (required for all versions)
Install .NET 8 Runtime (if using framework-dependent version)
Install Visual C++ Redistributable 2015-2022
- Download x64
- Required for api-ms-win-crt runtime

Note: Windows 10/11 includes these dependencies by default (except 7-Zip).

📥 Installation

🚀 Quick Download (Latest v3.4.2)

Download from GitHub Releases:

Version	Size	Requirements
Self-Contained	~156 MB	7-Zip only
Framework-Dependent	~1.6 MB	7-Zip + .NET 8

📥 Download Latest Release

Option 1: Self-Contained (Recommended - No .NET Required)

Go to Releases
Download RarRenamer.exe from Self-Contained assets
Install 7-Zip from 7-zip.org if not already installed
Run the application
No .NET Runtime needed! ✨

Option 2: Framework-Dependent (Smaller - Requires .NET 8)

Install 7-Zip from 7-zip.org
Install .NET 8 Runtime if not already installed
Go to Releases
Download RarRenamer.exe from Framework-Dependent assets
Run the application

Windows 7 Users: Also install Visual C++ Redistributable 2015-2022

Option 3: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/L-at-nnes/RarRenamer.NET.git
cd RarRenamer.NET/RarRenamer
dotnet build -c Release
dotnet run

Usage

Install 7-Zip if not already installed (Download)
Select folder:
- Click "Browse" to choose a folder containing RAR files
- OR type/paste the folder path directly into the text field
Adjust threads (optional):
- Auto-detected value shown (e.g., 4-8 for HDD, 16-32 for SSD)
- Use ▲▼ buttons to adjust (hold to increment/decrement continuously)
- Or type a number directly (1-256)
Scan archives: Click "Scan Archives"
- Status shows actual threads used (e.g., "threads: 8")
- Pause anytime: Click "Pause Scan" to pause without losing progress
- Resume anytime: Click "Resume Scan" to continue
- Cancel anytime: Click "Cancel Scan" to stop completely
- Enable Debug Log: Check to export detailed logs to debug_log.txt
Configure prefix/suffix (optional):
- Enter prefix (e.g., "P-" or "MyApp ")
- Enter suffix (e.g., "-v2" or " Portable")
- Test instantly: Changes apply to all files in real-time
Add to Queue:
- Select files you want to rename
- Click "➕ Add to Queue"
- Files are added to the persistent queue
Go to Queue tab:
- Review files in the queue
- Select/deselect items as needed
- Click "🚀 Rename Selected" to rename
Undo if needed:
- Click "↩️ Undo Operations" to revert changes
- Queue persists across application restarts

Thread Count Recommendations

Storage Type	Recommended Threads	Notes
NVMe SSD	16-32	High parallelism works well
SATA SSD	16-32	Good balance
HDD 7200	4-8	Optimized to prevent slowdown
HDD 5400	4-6	Conservative for slow drives
Network/NAS	4-8	Lower to avoid network saturation
USB 2.0 HDD	4	Very conservative for slow connections

Tip: The application auto-detects your drive type and sets optimal threads. For HDD, it now uses 4-8 threads to prevent the slowdown that occurred after 200-250 files in previous versions.

Examples

Without prefix/suffix:

Archive: test_v1.2.3.rar
Contains folder: "MyApp"
Result: MyApp.rar

With suffix " Portable" (with leading space):

Archive: test_v1.2.3.rar
Contains folder: "MyApp"
Suffix: " Portable"
Result: MyApp Portable.rar

With prefix "P-" and suffix "-x64":

Archive: test_v1.2.3.rar
Contains folder: "MyApp"
Prefix: "P-"
Suffix: "-x64"
Result: P-MyApp-x64.rar

How It Works

Scans each RAR file using 7-Zip CLI (7z l -slt)
Analyzes the output to find the first top-level folder
Applies optional prefix/suffix to the folder name
Determines if renaming is needed
Renames the RAR file to match the pattern

Performance Detail: Only reads RAR headers via 7-Zip (very fast), not the entire archive content. This means a 10 MB archive scans as fast as a 500 GB archive!

Log File Format

The rename_log.json file stores all operations:

[
  {
    "Timestamp": "2025-01-24T14:30:45",
    "OldPath": "D:\\Archives\\app123.rar",
    "NewPath": "D:\\Archives\\MyApp-Portable.rar",
    "OldName": "app123.rar",
    "NewName": "MyApp-Portable.rar",
    "Success": true
  }
]

Technologies

.NET 8 - Modern, high-performance framework
WPF - Native Windows UI with hardware acceleration
7-Zip CLI - Ultra-fast RAR archive scanning (10-20x faster than libraries)
Newtonsoft.Json 13.0.4 - Efficient JSON logging
System.Management - WMI drive detection for SSD/HDD optimization
Async/Await - Non-blocking UI operations
Parallel.ForEachAsync - Smart parallelism with automatic resource management

Building & Publishing

Build Debug

dotnet build

Build Release

dotnet build -c Release

Publish Self-Contained (~156 MB, no dependencies except 7-Zip)

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true \
  -o publish/self-contained

Publish Framework-Dependent (~2 MB, requires .NET 8 and 7-Zip)

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained false \
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true \
  -o publish/framework-dependent

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"7-Zip not found" error

Install 7-Zip from 7-zip.org
Ensure it's in default location: C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe
Or add 7-Zip to your system PATH

"No RAR files found"

Ensure the selected folder contains .rar files
Check file permissions

"Password protected" or "Corrupted archive"

Password-protected archives are instantly detected and skipped (3-second timeout prevents hanging)
Corrupted archives are detected but cannot be scanned
These files will be marked and skipped automatically

"Timeout" status

File took longer than 30 seconds to scan
Usually indicates a corrupted or very complex archive
File is skipped automatically

Undo doesn't work

Check if rename_log.json exists in the application folder
Verify files haven't been manually moved/renamed
Ensure the log file has valid JSON format

Scan is slow

Ensure 7-Zip is installed (library fallback is much slower)
Check if antivirus is scanning each file
HDD will always be slower than SSD (this is normal)

Windows 7 Specific

"api-ms-win-crt-runtime missing" error

Install Visual C++ Redistributable 2015-2022
Reboot after installation

Migration from PowerShell Version

The original RarRenamer PowerShell version is now deprecated in favor of RarRenamer.NET.

What's changed:

✅ 60x faster performance overall
✅ 10-20x faster scanning (7-Zip CLI)
✅ Modern WPF UI with dark theme
✅ Single-click selection
✅ Real-time prefix/suffix updates
✅ Asynchronous operations (responsive UI)
✅ Cancel button for long operations
✅ Timeout protection (30s per file)
✅ Smart parallelism (SSD/HDD detection)
✅ Instant refresh after undo (no rescan)
✅ Selections preserved after operations

Note: The PowerShell version will receive no further updates. Please use RarRenamer.NET for the best experience.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Fork the project
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
Open a Pull Request

License

Free to use and modify.

Acknowledgments

Original PowerShell version: RarRenamer
7-Zip for ultra-fast RAR reading
.NET community for the excellent ecosystem

Version History

v3.4.2 (2025-01-12): Critical fix - Password-protected RAR archives no longer hang (3-second timeout)
v3.4.1 (2025-01-12): UX improvements - Multi-selection (Ctrl/Shift), GridSplitter, double-click to open, optimized logging
v3.4.0 : Debug & Queue system - Real-time logging, debug file export, queue persistence, 2-tab interface
v3.2.0 : Major UX improvements - Pause/Resume, editable folder path, optimized HDD performance (4-8 threads), standard checkbox behavior, reduced memory usage
v3.1.2 : Added manual thread control with ▲▼ buttons, increased default HDD threads to 16
v3.1.1 : Critical fixes - Process zombie cleanup, race condition fix, async improvements
v3.1.0 : Major performance overhaul - 7-Zip CLI integration, instant refresh after undo, drive detection
v3.0.1 : Critical performance fix - Added parallelism control, timeout protection, cancel button
v3.0.0 : Complete rewrite in C# WPF .NET 8 with 60x performance improvement
v2.2 : PowerShell - Automatic UI mode detection (deprecated)
v2.1 : PowerShell - Windows 7 compatibility (deprecated)
v2.0 : PowerShell - Added checkboxes, logging/rollback (deprecated)
v1.0: PowerShell - Initial release (deprecated)

Made with 💪 using C# and WPF

📜 Legacy PowerShell Version

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 19 Commits
RarRenamer		RarRenamer
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md

L-at-nnes/RarRenamer.NET

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