I learned about this capability recently via
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/windows-file-explorer-trick-you-wont-believe/. There’s similar functionality on Apple Mac computers, which is also explained at that link.
Open File Explorer and then open the folder where the files are located.
I prefer using the Details View found on the View Ribbon.
Select the files to rename. If you wish to rename all the files, press Ctrl+A.
Press the F2 key, and then type the new file name you wish to use. In the example below, I renamed three text files by typing photos_05212022 - a poor wording choice, but it shows the results.
Press the Enter key. Your selected files will be instantly renamed.
Here’s a snapshot of a brief test result on my computer. Notice I did not use slashes as separators in the date. Slashes will cause a file naming error.
Uses
I think my main use for this technique is when transferring photos from my camera’s memory card to my PC. My camera names pictures as P plus a six-digit number. It number pictures in sequence as they are taken. If I take pictures over a multi-day period, I will rename them based on where or what I was shooting each day. This makes it easier to organize them into folders later.
Or, maybe co-workers send you files on scheduled basis, but they each name their files in a different manner. You could rename the files so that you recognize their content. Because the resulting file names are numbered, you can tell at a glance if you’ve received all files for processing - if you need 12 files and the last file you have has 10 appended, then two are missing..
After tinkering a bit, I discovered this feature will also rename folders. This feels a bit risky to me and I haven't thought of a way to use the feature on folders.