What's New in this Version?

Magic File Renamer 8 is a full rewrite of the classic MFR 7 desktop app with a modern Windows UI. It keeps the batch-renaming workflow — filters, live preview, presets, and tag-aware renaming — and adds the capabilities below around the Rename List, formats, undo, scripting, and console automation.

Beta release

This build is a time-limited beta. You can browse folders, build a Filter Chain, and preview renames as usual. Starting 90 days after this build’s release, GO (and other real rename commits, including console commit and Undo Last that writes to disk) is blocked until you install a newer beta or the official release.

• The window title and Help → About show the beta channel and the expiry date for this build.
• Download updates from www.finebytes.com/mfr (also Website & Updates).

New features

• Rename List upgrades
  • Add progress dialog: Cancel discards the in-progress batch; Cancel and keep added stops resolving and inserts what was already collected
  • Before/After mode — flip the same columns between original and preview values
  • CSV export of the visible columns
  • Add / Set columns from the current Filter Chain (write targets and format tokens)
  • Search fields across groups in Select Fields (field shuttle)
  • Xiph Rename List columns (and Apply To targets) for Vorbis / FLAC / Opus-style tags
• Format Editor
  • Search tokens across groups in the Insert catalog (Search tokens…)
  • Drop a Rename List cell (or an Explorer file path) into the format string at the caret
• Broader image, audio, and document format support
  • Formatter tokens can read WebP and HEIF/HEIC image properties (read-only)
  • EXIF tokens work on JPEG and also on PNG, TIFF, WebP, and HEIF/HEIC (still read-only), including typed GPS latitude/longitude (<exif-gps-lat> / <exif-gps-lon> and Jpeg Geo Latitude/Longitude columns)
  • Nearby / GeoNames tokens (<geo-place> / <geo-region> / <geo-country>) and Jpeg Geo Nearby columns — online reverse geocoding; Options → Location GeoNames username defaults to the built-in account; language defaults to English (en), overridable per token with lang=
  • PDF Document Info tokens and Rename List columns (title, author, page count, and related fields; read-only)
  • EPUB Document Info tokens and Rename List columns (title, creator, publisher, and related Dublin Core fields; read-only)
  • Office Document Info tokens and Rename List columns for DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX PackageProperties (title, author, subject, and related fields; read-only)
  • Opus files use the same Xiph comment path as Ogg Vorbis / FLAC
• Undo Last as a preview session
  • Ctrl+Z (or Undo Last) loads reverse values from the last GO
  • Clears the Filter Chain
  • Nothing is written until you press GO again
• Generate Rename Script
  • Tools → Generate Rename Script exports pending path and attribute changes as .bat or PowerShell .ps1
• Import from MFR 7
  • One-shot offer when ProgramData MFR 7 .mps presets are found
  • Best-effort conversion with a result summary; re-offered after Reset Configuration
  • See Migrating from MFR 7 — One-shot import offer
• Desktop UI command-line startup
  • Positional paths / wildcards seed the Rename List; --initial-folder opens the File List
  • Add modifiers match console names; when omitted, Options settings apply
  • -l / --log-level sets the launch minimum: debug, info, warn, or error (default info)
  • Desktop launch is interactive only: it does not run a preset, dry-run, or confirm/commit (use mfrc for that)
  • See Command Line Parameters — Desktop UI
• Console automation upgrades
  • --dry-run previews commit outcomes without changing disk
  • -o / --output-file writes JSON results
  • --set overrides config keys for a run
  • See Console Mode

Other changes

• Refreshed desktop UI
  • Built with a modern UI toolkit for current Windows
  • Familiar layout: File List, Rename List, Available Filters, Filter Chain, and Filter Configuration
• Filter Chain
  • Ordered filters to apply (was “Applied Filters” in MFR 7)
  • Same name throughout the UI and Help
• JSON preferences and presets
  • Settings in config.json under AppData
  • Presets use JSON
  • MFR 7 .mps presets can import once via Import from MFR 7

Coming from MFR 7? See the name and feature map in Migrating from MFR 7.

Not in this build yet / regressions vs MFR 7

The rewrite does not yet match every MFR 7 capability. These items are omitted on purpose for now and may return later.

• Not shipped yet
  • FreeDB album lookup (Set from FreeDB filter)
  • Clipboard text formatter token
• Format / imaging regressions
  • Image property tokens no longer cover WMF or EMF
  • TagLib Image Tag columns and <imagetag-*> tokens are not ported (Rating, Orientation, Creator, Tag Types, …). For many camera and keyword fields, use the Jpeg / EXIF Rename List columns and <exif-*> / <image-*> tokens instead