Windows – How to pass an argument to a Windows Scheduled Task with spaces in it

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I need to set up a Windows Scheduled Task. It accepts 1 parameter/argument which is a path and can contain spaces. My Scheduled task does not work – it "breaks" the parameter up at the first space.

If I run it in the Command Prompt I can just wrap the argument in " " and it works fine, however, this does not work in the Scheduled Task UI.

e.g. C:\Program Files\xyz\FTP File Transfer\FTPFileTransferTask.exe "C:\Program Files\xyz\The Interface\Folder Path"

I have tried wrapping the argument with " " ' ' [ ] () and have tried filling in the spaces with %20, ~1 etc. with no luck.

I know of one solution to make a bat file and use " " around my argument but I don't want to add more complexity.

I tried it on Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server and both failed. There seems to be no discussions on this?

Best Answer

I've worked with scheduled tasks and you generally put the arguments in its own text input box. This means that you point the action to the program/script field points to the exe and the "Add Arguments" field should have all of the parameters. (source)

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I believe this behavior was added to prevent spaces in the file path to the exe causing problems.

I do this all of the time with PowerShell scripts. Here is an example:

  • Program/script: powershell.exe
  • Add arguments: -command "& 'C:\HSD - Copy\logoffstudents.ps1' " -NonInteractive
  • Start in: Blank
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