[SOLVED] In what scenarios are we allowed to change the name of a file or folder?

[John344]

For some files and folders changing the names can sometimes mess up the program that is being run.

I have been working on 3d modeling and animation for free time, and I would download models, animations, and audio files. These would sometimes have a type of serial code instead of a name which makes them hard to find and remember what they are and at this point I have hundreds of assets to work with.

How can I organize them without messing them up?

Also I had to download and use Winrar to open these files and extract them, and the WinRAR version of the file will also still be there after extracting it. Is it safe to delete that after extracting the contents and is it basically a duplicate of the file? Or do I still need that file in WinRar form?

 

[cryoburner]

You shouldn't likely need the WinRar copy, as that should just a compressed version of the files so that they are easier to download. Once you have extracted the files from it, the WinRar archive is just acting as a second copy of the files. It could potentially be worth keeping it around elsewhere for backup purposes in case you somehow mess up a file and can't easily download it again though.

As for renaming, if the file is open in a running program at the time when you rename it, that could potentially cause issues if the program expects it to still be there under the old name. Also, if you save a file that relies on other files being in a certain location, it won't be able to locate them when you go to load it if their names have changed. For example, a 3D model that uses various texture files, or an animation that relies on a certain 3D model to be loaded along with it. Many kinds of files won't rely on other files though, and will be entirely self-contained.