Set a path variable with spaces in the path in a Windows .cmd file or batch file

Try something like this:

SET MY_PATH=C:\Folder with a space

"%MY_PATH%\MyProgram.exe" /switch1 /switch2

I use

set "VAR_NAME=<String With Spaces>"

when updating path:

set "PATH=%UTIL_DIR%;%PATH%"

There are two options here. First, you can store the path unquoted and just quote it later:

set MyPath=C:\Program Files\Foo
"%MyPath%\foo with spaces.exe" something

Another option you could use is a subroutine which alles for un-quoting strings (but in this case it's actually not a very good idea since you're adding quotes, stripping them away and re-adding them again without benefit):

set MyPath="C:\Program Files\Foo"
call :foo %MyPath%
goto :eof

:foo
"%~1\foo.exe"
goto :eof

The %~1 removes quotation marks around the argument. This comes in handy when passing folder names around quoted but, as said before, in this particular case it's not the best idea :-)

Try this;

1. create a variable as below

   SET "SolutionDir=C:\Test projects\Automation tests\bin\Debug"**
   

2. Then replace the path with variable. Make sure to add quotes for starts and end

   vstest.console.exe "%SolutionDir%\Automation.Specs.dll"
   

I always place the path in double quotes when I am creating a .bat file. (I just added the PAUSE so it wont close the screen.)

For example:

"C:\Program Files\PageTech\PCLReader64_131\PCLReader64.exe"
PAUSE

The proper way to do this is like so:

@ECHO off
SET MY_PATH=M:\Dir\^
With Spaces\Sub Folder^
\Dir\Folder
:: calls M:\Dir\With Spaces\Sub Folder\Dir\Folder\hello.bat
CALL "%MY_PATH%\hello.bat"
pause

I had this same problem recently, imagine...

C:\ (root)
└  Folder with spaces
     └  File1.txt
     └  File2.txt

❌ Issue [What NOT to do]

You're right, if you add " " around the path...

SET RootFolder="C:\Folder with spaces"

it then makes it unusable if you want to then append filenames, etc (without doing some interim processing on the string...

FOR %%F IN * DO (COPY %%F "%RootFolder%\%%F")

COPY File1.txt ""C:\Folder with spaces"\File1.txt"  <-- ❌ Invalid path
COPY File2.txt ""C:\Folder with spaces"\File2.txt"  <-- ❌ Invalid path

✅ Solution [What to do]

The key is to still use " ", but put them around the entire SET statement (i.e. BEFORE the variable name)

SET "RootFolder=C:\Folder with spaces"

This will them work when you need to re-use the variable

FOR %%F IN * DO (COPY %%F "%RootFolder%\%%F")

COPY File1.txt "C:\Folder with spaces\File1.txt"
COPY File1.txt "C:\Folder with spaces\File2.txt"

The easiest way to fix this problem is to put the folder name in quotes:

(cd\New Folder\...) --> (cd\"New Folder"\...)

Hopes this helps.

If you need to store permanent path (path is not changed when cmd is restart)

1. Run the Command Prompt as administrator (Right click on cmd.exe and select run as administrator)

2. In cmd setx path "%path%;your new path" then enter

3. Check whether the path is taken correctly by typing path and pressing enter

also just try adding double slashes like this works for me only

set dir="C:\\\1. Some Folder\\\Some Other Folder\\\Just Because"

@echo on
MKDIR %dir%

OMG after posting they removed the second \ in my post so if you open my comment and it shows three you should read them as two......

If you don't want/need to declare a variable in your batch script, I've worked around this issue for a path with spaces in a script call by adding double quotes to the whole path and single quotes to he folder with the spaces:

powershell.exe "C:\FolderWithoutSpaces\'Folder With Spaces'\SubFolderWithoutSpaces\ScriptFile.ps1"