Powershell via VBScript - Environmental Variable path terminated when username contains spaces [duplicate] - powershell

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How can I run a PowerShell script with white spaces in the path from the command line?
(5 answers)
Closed 1 year ago.
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.

Answer 1

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.