How to use quotes with powershell command line, get-wmiobject, and query or filter

Question

My command and the error I get are below. I've tried every combination of quotes, braces, and backticks I can think of. Does anyone know how to get this to work?

PS C:\Windows\system32> powershell.exe -NoLogo -NonInteractive -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -InputFormat None -Command " & {(Get-WmiObject -Class win32_service -Filter "name='MSSQLSERVER'").StartName}"

Get-WmiObject : Invalid query "select * from win32_service where name=MSSQLSERVER" At line:1 char:6 + & {(Get-WmiObject -Class win32_service -Filter name=MSSQLSERVER).StartName} + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [Get-WmiObject], ManagementException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : GetWMIManagementException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWmiObjectCommand

Bart Withaar · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-02 00:09:54Z

1

In the windows batch, you need to escape the ( and ) characters using the ^. In Powershell, you need to escape the single quote using the backquote to ensure it gets passed on to wmi. (I left out the call operator etc, I think you don't need those).

powershell.exe -NoLogo -NonInteractive -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -InputFormat None ^
    -Command ^(Get-WmiObject -Class win32_service -Filter "name=`'MSSQLSERVER`'"^).StartName

edited Mar 2, 2016 at 0:09

answered Mar 2, 2016 at 0:04

Bart Withaar

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2 Comments

runamoker Over a year ago

First of all, thanks so much for helping me. I've spent hours on this so far. I ran that and got this result: Get-WmiObject : Invalid query "select ^ from win32_service where name='MSSQLSERVER'" Another problem I would have with this solution if it worked is that I'm calling actually calling powershell through the powershell_out function in Chef, and it encloses the -Command parameter in double quotes like this -Command " <stuff I put in>" So I don't have control over those quotes, and they are just contributing to the quoting problem.

runamoker Over a year ago

This ended up working for me: (Get-WmiObject -Class win32_service -Filter "name=`'MSSQLSERVER`'").StartName. Thank you! I couldn't have done it without you.

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