F2 renames a file — and Tab jumps straight to the next one

Two slow clicks on a filename, trying to land exactly between “open” and “rename” — that's how most people rename files. Yet there's a key for it: F2 opens the name for editing instantly. And that's just the start. Few people know the Tab key, while renaming, saves the new name and immediately opens editing on the next file in line. Or that selecting several files at once lets F2 rename them all in one go.

How to do it

1. In File Explorer, click a file and press F2 — the name opens for editing, with the extension smartly left unselected so you don't overwrite it by accident.
2. Type the new name and press Tab instead of Enter — the name saves and editing opens right on the next file. Shift + Tab jumps back to the previous one.
3. For bulk renaming, select multiple files (Ctrl + click, or Ctrl + A for all), press F2, and type a shared name, like “Italy Vacation.”
4. After confirming with Enter, every file gets that name plus a sequence number in parentheses — “Italy Vacation (1),” “Italy Vacation (2),” and so on.
5. If you make a mistake, Ctrl + Z undoes the rename — it works on a whole batch too.

A typical scenario

Photographer Jane comes back from a shoot with a memory card full of files named “DSC_4711.jpg.” She used to rename each one separately: a slow double-click, overwrite, Enter, again. Thirty photos, five minutes of tedious work. Now she selects every shot from one shoot, presses F2, types “Smith Wedding,” and Enter — done in ten seconds. And when she later needs to add “preview” to the name of five selected photos, she runs through them with F2 and Tab without touching the mouse once.

The same trick works for a student saving lecture scans, and for an accountant who saves invoices under a consistent naming pattern every month.

What you get out of it

• Time: renaming one file is a small thing, but you do it constantly — downloaded attachments, scans, photos, exports. A few minutes a day adds up.
• Tidier files: when renaming is fast, you actually do it — and folders stop being a graveyard of names like “document_final_v2 (copy).”
• Less mouse use: you can run through a series of files entirely from the keyboard, which is faster and easier on your wrist.

Pro tip

For more complex renaming — replacing part of the text across a hundred names, adding a date, numbering from a specific number — Microsoft has the free PowerToys PowerRename tool, which shows up right in Explorer's context menu.