Spaces cause split in path with PowerShell

Question

I'm having an issue with powershell when invoking an exe at a path containing spaces.

PS C:\Windows Services> invoke-expression "C:\Windows Services\MyService.exe"

The term 'C:\Windows' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.

It seems to be splitting on the space between 'Windows' and 'Services'. Any idea how to get around this problem?

Kiley

Use &, the call operator, to invoke commands whose names or paths are stored in quoted strings and/or are referenced via variables, as in the accepted answer. Invoke-Expression is not only the wrong tool to use in this particular case, it should generally be avoided. – Loblolly

Answer 1

Would this do what you want?:

& "C:\Windows Services\MyService.exe"

Use &, the call operator, to invoke commands whose names or paths are stored in quoted strings and/or are referenced via variables, as in the accepted answer. Invoke-Expression is not only the wrong tool to use in this particular case, it should generally be avoided.

Electrolytic

For me, I am passing the path as an -ArgumentList into Start-Process. Start-Process -FilePath "notepad++.exe" -ArgumentList "C:\Long Path\That\contains\many spaces\toThisFile.txt" – Ensilage

Answer 2

You can escape the space by using single quotations and a backtick before the space:

$path = 'C:\Windows Services\MyService.exe'
$path -replace ' ', '` '
invoke-expression $path

Gwenora

Problem with this solution is that the path is passed in as an argument and I cannot control how it is escaped. – Kiley

You can just perform -replace on the variable containing the path and replace ' ' with '` ' – Gwenora

While this answers the question as asked, it's worth pointing out that Invoke-Expression is not only the wrong tool to use for the OP's use case, it should generally be avoided. – Loblolly

Answer 3

Not sure if someone still needs it... I needed to invoke msbuild in powershell and following worked fine:

$MSBuild = "${Env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Professional\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe"

& $MSBuild $PathToSolution /p:OutDir=$OutDirVar /t:Rebuild /p:Configuration=Release

Impression

Answer 4

"&'C:\Windows Services\MyService.exe'" | Invoke-Expression

via https://www.vistax64.com/powershell/52905-invoke-expression-exe-has-spaces-its-path.html

Crackbrain

Answer 5

For any file path with space, simply put them in double quotations will work in Windows Powershell. For example, if you want to go to Program Files directory, instead of use

PS C:\> cd Program Files

which will induce error, simply use the following will solve the problem:

PS C:\> cd "Program Files"

Denote

Doesn't work for me. Using PowerShell v7.3.0 – Mensural

Answer 6

What worked for me (I needed the path to create a MySQL dump), was to place the directory in between 6 double quotes like so:

$path = """C:\Path\To\File"""

Marra

Answer 7

This worked for me:

$scanresults = Invoke-Expression "& 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Nmap\nmap.exe' -vv -sn 192.168.1.1-150 --open"

Nev

Thank you very much! This worked to launch a powershell file named wslLauncher.ps1 that was located in a path that contained a space, from Eclipse in Java. The exact line of code was: String command = "powershell.exe & '"+launcherPath+launcherName+"' "; – Levorotation

Answer 8

Using Powershell on Windows10 in 2018, what worked for me was simply to replace double quotes " by simple quotes '. Adding the backtick before the space, as suggested in an answer, broke the path.

Skink

Works for me. If I use double quote, I get the error ParameterArgumentValidationError. – Beekman

Answer 9

Can use the . dot operator.

. "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin\code.cmd"

or the Start-Process command

Start-Process -PSPath "C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin\code.cmd"

or using ProcessStartInfo and Process

$ProcessInfo = New-Object -TypeName System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$ProcessInfo.FileName = 'C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe'
if($Admin){ $ProcessInfo.Verb = 'runas' }
$ProcessInfo.UseShellExecute = $false

$CommandParameters = '-noexit -noprofile -command Set-Location -LiteralPath c:\; $host.ui.RawUI.WindowTitle = ''[{0}] PS''; Set-PSReadlineOption -HistorySaveStyle SaveNothing;' -f $Cred.UserName
$ProcessInfo.Arguments = $CommandParameters
$ProcessInfo.Domain = ($Cred.UserName -split '\\')[0]
$ProcessInfo.UserName = ($Cred.UserName -split '\\')[1]
$ProcessInfo.Password = $Cred.Password

$ProcessObject = New-Object -TypeName System.Diagnostics.Process
$ProcessObject.StartInfo = $ProcessInfo
$ProcessObject.Start() | Out-Null

Edette

Answer 10

There's a hack I've used since the Invoke-Expression works fine for me.

You could set the current location to the path with spaces, invoke the expression, get back to your previous location and continue:

$currLocation = Get-Location
Set-Location = "C:\Windows Services\"
Invoke-Expression ".\MyService.exe"
Set-Location $currLocation

This will only work if the exe doesn't have any spaces in its name.

Hope this helps

Priscilapriscilla

Answer 11

Please use this simple one liner:

Invoke-Expression "C:\'Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16'\EXCEL.EXE"

Malik

Answer 12

Try this, simple and without much change:

invoke-expression "'C:\Windows Services\MyService.exe'"

using single quotations at the beginning and end of the path.

Derosa

This worked for me when I needed to invoke a powershell script from bash and double quotes or triple double quotes weren't cutting it. – Spragens

Answer 13

Due to several PowerShell quoting rules that are used for passing arguments to native commands which also have specific experimental Features in PowerShell, quoting might get very confusing. Therefore the solution in some cases might be simply to don't go down the rabbit hole:

Avoid quoting file paths with spaces by using the 8.3 filenames

$FSO = New-Object -ComObject Scripting.FileSystemObject
$FSO.getfile('C:\Windows Services\MyService.exe').ShortPath
C:\WINDOW~1\MYSERV~1.EXE

Aurum

Answer 14

Just put ${yourpathtofile/folder}

PowerShell does not count spaces; to tell PowerShell to consider the whole path including spaces, add your path in between ${ & }.

Bradleigh

Answer 15

Simply put the path in double quotes in front of cd, Like this:

cd "C:\Users\MyComputer\Documents\Visual Studio 2019\Projects"

Dwayne

Answer 16

1. enter the root C drive by entering command

C:

2. type cd and then press Tab key, it will toggle through all available locations and press enter when you have reached the desired one

cd {press tab}

Dualistic