How to run commands on multiple files with forfiles command

Forfiles is a useful windows command to select a set of files and then run a command on each of the files. It’s similar to the functionality of find command on Linux OS.
forfiles <Criteria to select files> /C "command to applied on each of files selected"
The criteria we can use to select files:
(Option /D) Modifies date or number of days it was last modified from
(Option /M) Search files based on names
(Option /S) Look for files in sub-directories also
(Option /P) Look for files in Specific directory

Find all excel files modified 10 days back in the current folder and subfolders

forfiles /D -10 /S /M *.xlsx /C "cmd /c echo @path"

In the above command @path is used to print the complete absolute path of the file. Similarly we can use below variables in the command part.

@file : Name of the file includes extension

@fname : Name of the file excludes extension

@relpath : Relative path of the file from the current folder

@ext : Extention of  the file

@fsize : Size of the file

@fdate : Last modified date of the file

@ftime : Last modified time of the file

delete all log files created in the last 1 month

forfiles /D +30 /S /M *.log /C "cmd /c del @file"

Copy/Backup files modified after 1st Jauary 2015

forfiles /D 01/01/2015 /M * /C "cmd /c copy @file D:\backupfolder\"

Get list of all picture files with their size

forfiles /S /M *.jpeg /C "cmd /c echo @path @fsize"

Get list of all exe’s and their last modified date

forfiles /M *.exe /C "cmd /c echo @path @fdate"

Get list of files which is less than given size

forfiles /S /M *.txt /C "cmd /c if @fsize LSS 1000 echo @file"

List all sub-directories in a given folder

forfiles /M * /C "cmd /c if @isdir==TRUE echo @file"


Recursively rename file extentions


If you want to rename files from one extension to another, recursively in all sub folders, then you can use the below command.

forfiles /S /M *.ext1 /C "cmd /c rename @file @fname.ext2"


Recursively remove file extentions


forfiles /S /M *.ext /C "cmd /c rename @file @fname"


Recursively add prefix in filenames


forfiles /S /M *.jpg /C "cmd /c rename @file photo@file"