Windows 10: How do I remove or replace every special character in every filename in a directory?

I have a folder of 220+ GB of backups from an old PC. There are I don't know how many files all with some special characters. I'm trying to compress the folder, but it doesn't work with these special characters.


I do not want to go through every single file, check every single name, and remove every single special character in a folder that's over 200 GB large.


Is there a method to remove every special character, or replace them with something else, without going through every single file?

:)

 

Searching for special characters

To find any file containing -2 search for filename:*-2:



(Click to enlarge.)

Search parameter filename:* followed by any special character searches for that character in file names. For example searching for filename:*& finds all files with an ampersand (&) in filename, search filename:*_ finds all files with an underscore in file name, search filename:*, finds all files with a comma in file name.

 

Searching for special characters

Terrific, that works. I thought the * was just a wildcard; that's what all the help faqs said. If you leave off the filename: it pulls everything with a 2 in it. It's a bit odd that MS would make a simple search that cumbersome.

Thank you so much!

 

better character support in filenames

Do you think there will come a time when windows 10 can support as many characters in the filename as Mac or linux?

Bit of a deal breaker integrating windows into my mac environment at the moment as many filenames have what windows would call invalid characters.

Will it be possible if they eventually replace the file explorer with a new version?