Try using the file test operators -B or -T to test for binary or text file perldoc -f -B. rename works for me on XP and 5.8.4 and works on both binary and plain text. Use a one liner and prove it to yourself  perl -le "rename 'somefile.xls', 'somefile2.xls'" I would suggest learning more about glob and the file test operators. I usually glob a list of files from the directory I want and then operate on the resulting list. There are lots of other ways to do this. Perhaps a simle example will get you started: 
my (@files) = glob "c:/progs/*"; #list of progs
my (@dirs, @binfiles, @textfiles);
foreach my $f( @files ) { 
  -d $f ? push @dirs, $f :
  -f $f  && -B $f ? push @binfiles, $f :
  -f $f  && -T $f ? push @textfiles, $f : next; 
}

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JamesNC

In reply to Re^3: Renaming non-ascii files by JamesNC
in thread Renaming non-ascii files by jon12

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