Spaces cause split in path with PowerShell

Question

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

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

Output:

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'. How can I get around this problem?

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.

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

Answer 3

I needed to invoke msbuild in PowerShell and the 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

Answer 4

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

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

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 using

C:
cd \
cd Program Files

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

C:
cd \
cd "Program Files"

Answer 6

This worked for me:

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

Answer 7

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"""

Answer 8

Using PowerShell on Windows 10 in 2018, simply replacing double quotes " by simple quotes ' worked for me.

Adding the backtick before the space, as suggested in an answer, broke the path.

Answer 9

You 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

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 file doesn't have any spaces in its name.

Answer 11

Please use this simple one liner:

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

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.

Answer 13

My fix: Around the block of spaces, especially folder naming, go back to the folder and change the 'space' to a dot. For example, "Maine Cabin Masters" to "Maine.Cabin.Masters".

This works with conventional code, either PowerShell or Terminal mode.

Answer 14

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

Answer 15

So, my issue was similar. I wanted to play a Windows sound using PowerShell, but the space in the "C:\Windows\Media\Windows Ding.wav" file created the exact same issue.

A lot of the answers talked about adding double quotes, Invoke-Expression, using different operators, creating a MySQL dump, etc. But none of it worked for me. I messed around a little, and this was my solution:

powershell -c (New-Object Media.SoundPlayer "'C:\Windows\Media\Windows Ding.wav'").PlaySync();

Double quotes on the outside, and single quotes on the inside.

Answer 16

Just put ${yourpathtofile/folder}

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

Answer 17

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

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

Answer 18

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}