Given a folder full of files, replaces one string for another in each file name.

RemoveFileNameCharacters.vbs

' Results: Looks at the names of all files in FOLDER_TO_SCAN, replacing any instance of STRING_TO_REPLACE with REPLACE_WITH in each filename.

Dim FOLDER_TO_SCAN, STRING_TO_REPLACE, REPLACE_WITH
FOLDER_TO_SCAN = "C:\Folder\to\scan\"
STRING_TO_REPLACE = "replace this"
REPLACE_WITH = "with this"

Dim fso, folder
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set folder = fso.GetFolder(FOLDER_TO_SCAN)

For Each subfolder In folder.SubFolders
  If Instr(subfolder.Name, STRING_TO_REPLACE) > 0 Then
    subfolder.name = Replace(subfolder.Name, STRING_TO_REPLACE , REPLACE_WITH)
  End If
Next

For Each file In folder.Files
  If Instr(file.Name, "#") > 0 Then
    file.name = Replace(file.Name, "#", "")
  End If
Next

Set fso = Nothing
Set folder= Nothing