Tool for renaming files on a VM

[SommyJo]

Years later, there is still no tool that takes care of renaming the files of a VM?
They are text files, it shouldn't be complicated, even for VMWare itself which could already do it at the time of a clone or when you ask to rename a VM.
I find myself a VM with a name and files that identify a completely different purpose and a different operating system.

It was enough to change their name a couple of times, move them from a WS to ESXi or vice versa, make some clones and some upgrades and today a VM in Win11 has the files of a VM with XP.

The fact that the VMs continue to work without problems does not justify the confusion at the disk level.

[Technogeezer]

I do understand what you're saying, but consider: 

The files that comprise a VM are operating system files. Not all of them contain "text". 

It doesn't matter what the underlying VM files are named. As long as they're contained in the same folder, they represent the VM. In the GUI, you reference the vmx file in the folder containing all the files. The .VMX then points to the remaining files within that folder which are needed for the VM (e.g. virtual disk file). 

And I would contend that there is no confusion. The files that make up two VMs are contained in a separate folders. Even if the underlying files are named the same, the unique path (including the different folder name) is sufficient to differentiate the files from one another. You can have two "readme.txt" files that have different contents in different folders, and there's nothing wrong with that. 

If you want to rename files (but not the .vmdk files, which you should use vmware-vdiskmanager to rename) and then manually edit the .vmx file to represent the new names so that they are more suited to your organization, then you are free to do so.

Or you can create a new VM clone the "old fashioned way" with the name that you want. The .vmx files and other configuration files will have the name that you want. When asked for a virtual disk Instead of creating a new virtual disk for that VM, configure the new VM for an existing virtual disk (in your old, mis-named VM), and choose the option to make a copy of the original.

Most folks, I would be willing to wager, don't care.

All this being said, it would be a nice-to-have. But IMO VMware has larger issues to address.

[SommyJo]

I agree with you, people don't care about that and all in all, I don't care that much either considering I have 10+ year old VMs.
It just bothers me to see such... old references. If a VM is new, it doesn't need to carry all of this around.
I have a Win11 VM called Dev-Web, with disks called Win-10-Pro-x64 and other files called Win-Office.
It works, and that's enough for me.

It's a bit like wearing soccer shorts, a velvet jacket and a cycling helmet. In the office no one notices it and I still work without problems, but in the morning in front of the mirror I could have done better.

For the rest, I agree with you: it would be a nice-to-have. It seems strange to me that, in the absence of a VMare tool, no one has thought of creating one.