How to Create Multiple Folders in Windows From a List of Names

Quick Tips

• While you can use PowerShell to create multiple folders, the command isn’t exactly easy to type or paste manually. You can try to offload some of the work by using Excel to format the list.
• The PowerShell command might not parse folder names that have a space in them when determining the location.
• When downloading third-party apps, recheck reviews and download servers to ensure you’re downloading a legitimate app, and keep your antivirus software on.

If you’ve got a list of folder names that need to be made into folders (for example, for filing), creating folders manually can take a while when the list gets long. If you want to learn how to create multiple folders in Windows from a list, there are a few ways, from using solely scripting solutions built into Windows to third-party apps.

Windows Create Multiple Folders From a List With PowerShell Commands

PowerShell has access to pretty much any part of the system and can make folders at will. However, this method is a bit unwieldy if you don’t have a list that’s correctly formatted for it.

Step 1. Right-click on the Start button on the toolbar and select “Terminal (Admin).” Confirm the user account control when prompted.

Step 2. In File Explorer, right-click on the address bar of the folder where you want the folders to appear to copy it.

Step 3. Type in “cd” and paste the address. For example, this is from our sample:

cd C:\Users\Asus\OneDrive\Desktop\FolderList

Step 4. Create a command that starts with “md” then has the list of names of folders you want to create, with each name in quotes and each entry separated by a comma. For example:

md “name1”, “name2”, “name3”, “name4”

The folders will be created.

Create Multiple Folders from a List using Excel

If you want to streamline this process, you can use Excel. Suppose you have a list of names in a column in Excel (let’s say column A).

Step 1.. In an empty cell, enter the following command:

=TEXTJOIN(“, “,TRUE,””””&A1:A4&””””)

For the numbers, insert the starting and ending row of the list of names. Note that you have to be precise, as the formula will create blanks.

Step 2. Hit Enter to confirm the operation.

Step 3. Use the PowerShell command from above, select the location (with the cd), and then use the “md” command and paste in the list.

Batch Create Multiple Folders From a List With Third-Party Tools

If you don’t like using PowerShell or manipulating lists manually, you can use third-party tools. Typically, these don’t take up too much space and have an UI that’s fairly easy to use. You can find a lot of different options, but here are some recommendations.

Option 1: Folder Creator

The Folder Creator utility is simple and lightweight, creating a list of folders that have a shared name base. This can be helpful when you want to create a bunch of folders that are numbered differently.

Using the tool is quite simple. All you have to do is define the target location (which can be browsed for), enter the base name (the shared element in all folders), and then the starting and ending number for the list. The tool will take care of the rest.

Option 2: Batch Create Folders

The Batch-Create-Folders utility (available on SourceForge) is an open-source tool that allows you to manually input or paste a list of names of folders.

Once downloaded, it’s fairly easy to use.

Step 1. Extract the downloaded ZIP file somewhere (you can even use the Downloads folder).

Step 2. Open the extracted folder and run the .exe file.

Step 3. Enter a list of names separated by a linebreak (Enter of Shift + Enter).

Step 4. Click on “Choose Directory” to locate the destination folder.

Step 5. Click on “Create folders” to create the folders.

Optionally, you can right-click on an entry to create subfolders in a similar manner.