Question : Broken share paths with file server rename?

I am going to be re-building the office file server and in the process, rename it to conform to our new naming convention.

My question:

A rename of this file server will likely create numerous ‘broken-links’ for users who have 'hard-coded' mappings in file paths that reference the OLD server name.
Will a CNAME in DNS, such as 'OLDSERVERNAME’ pointing to the correct IP of  'NEWSERVERNAME', fix this type of issue?  

Also, looking for ANY potential exceptions, caveats, etc… (applications, static mappings, ..)

Thanks for your insight!

Answer : Broken share paths with file server rename?

Yes, a CNAME (alias) record with the old name that points to the A (host) record with the new name will work.  Most applications will rely on name resolution for communication but some may be coded to use IP Address only so I'd make sure to give it the same static IP.  

Do you use WINS (or NBNS) in your environment?  That's the only potential exception I can see for a simple file/print server.