Powershell via VBScript - Environmental Variable path terminated when username contains spaces

Question

I have been working on a Powershell Winforms app that requires the console window to be hidden. To do this, I am calling a .ps1 script from a .vbs file (as starting via another .ps1 script and using "-WindowStyle Hidden" still briefly shows the console window upon opening the script). I am using the following code:

Dim shell,command
command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1"""
Set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
shell.Run command,0

This works with no issues when using an account name with no spaces (e.g. "TESTUSER" will resolve to "C:\USERS\TESTUSER\AppData\Local"). However, when any part of the path generated by the "%localappdata%" environmental variable contains spaces (in this case, using something like "TEST USER 1"), Powershell will terminate the command at "C:\Users\TEST" with an error stating: "The term "C:\Users\TEST" is not recognised as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file or operable program."

I am aware that any strings with spaces in VBScript need to use two sets of surrounding double quotes (""path with spaces""), but this doesn't work in this case - I have tried every combination that has been suggested and the %localappdata% path still has the same issue.

Things I have tried:

Two quotes surrounding path (Working with no spaces):

command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1"""

Two quotes surrounding entire argument:

command = ""powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1""""

Single quotes surrounding both:

command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command "%localappdata%\test\test.ps1""

Expanding %localappdata% variable:

Dim shell,path,command
Set shell.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
path = shell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%localappdata%")
command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command " & path &"\test\test.ps1"
shell.Run command,0

Adding "Chr(34)" to replace spaces:

command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1""" & Chr(34)

Using:

"$env:localappdata" or "$env:username"

(both inside and out of "command" quotes) to replace

"%localappdata%" or "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local"

I have also tried various solutions provided here and here, but nothing works in this case.

I also tried replacing %localappdata% with the absolute file path ("C:\Users\TEST USER 1\AppData\Local\test\test.ps1"), but this also gives the same error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

The first is the correct approach for VBScript encoded file paths - `command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1"""`. However, that doesn't mean Powershell will be happy with it and may expect something else. The best test is take VBScript out of the equation and just run `powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -command "%localappdata%\test\test.ps1"` from the command prompt, what is the result? — user692942, Aug 27 '21 at 14:47
I seem to have found the solution after trying your suggestion - using `"-File"` instead of `"-command"` seems to run the command without issues: `command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1"""` Thanks a lot for the suggestion! — Jackson0ne, Aug 27 '21 at 15:18
The [duplicate explains it](https://stackoverflow.com/a/45762288/1682881) in enough detail for you to resolve the problem. — user692942, Aug 27 '21 at 16:26

mklement0 · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-30T14:25:24.973

Since you're invoking a script file by path rather than passing PowerShell statements to PowerShell's CLI, use the -File parameter, not -Command, which implicitly solves your quoting problems:

' Note the use of -File instead of -Command
command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File ""%localappdata%\test\test.ps1"""

The reason that -Command didn't work in your case is that its argument(s) are subject to another round of interpretation, namely as PowerShell code, after stripping syntactic " chars. during command-line parsing. This means that a path with spaces is then seen unquoted by PowerShell, causing the invocation to fail; you'd need additional quoting -either escaped " quotes (\"...\", i.e. \""...\"" from inside a VBScript string) or single quotes ('...'), which in turn would necessitate use of &, the call operator:

' With -Command: note the embedded '...' quoting and the need to call with `&`
' However, there's usually no need for -Command to invoke scripts with arguments.
command = "powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command ""& '%localappdata%\test\test.ps1'"""

See this answer for more information.

Powershell via VBScript - Environmental Variable path terminated when username contains spaces

1 Answers1