Type cd c:\ . Now press the tab key (this is auto-complete, which will save you a lot of typing) repeatedly until it shows you a directory with spaces in the name. Notice how it delimits the path with apostrophes '. Use the same character when you're typing.

Edit: Make sure to use an apostrophe, not a backtick.

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.

add double quotes

 cd "C:\Users\First Last\"

$ cd "$DOCS"

You need to quote "$DOCS" to prevent spaces from being parsed as word separators. More often than not, variable references should be quoted.

Note that $HOME would have the same problem. The issue is coming from when the shell evaluates variable references; it's nothing to do with what variables you use or how you assign to them. It's the expansion that needs to be quoted.

$ echo $HOME
/home/my dir

This is deceptive. echo is actually echoing the two strings /home/my and dir. If you use cd or ls you'll see how it's actually working.

$ ls $HOME
ls: cannot access /home/my: No such file or directory
ls: cannot access dir: No such file or directory
$ cd $HOME
bash: cd: /home/my: No such file or directory
$ cd "$HOME"
<success!>

Can I ask why it works when I manually type it in but not in a variable?

Great question! Let's examine the commands you typed:

$ DOCS="\"/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents\""
$ echo $DOCS
"/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents"
$ cd $DOCS
-bash: cd: "/cygdrive/c/Users/my: No such file or directory

The reason this doesn't work is because Bash doesn't parse quotes inside variable expansions. It does perform word splitting, so whitespace in unquoted variable expansions is taken as word separators. It doesn't parse quotes in any way, meaning you can't put double quotes inside a variable to override word splitting.

$ cd $DOCS

Because of this, cd is passed two parameters. As far as cd knows it looks like you wrote:

$ cd '"/cygdrive/c/Users/my' 'dir/Documents"'

Two parameters, with double quotes intact.

Hi @AATester

Thanks for writing and I'm happy to help you today regarding running your power shell script.

In case you want to run powershell.exe -File from the command line, you always have to set paths with spaces in double quotes ("").

Also try using the Grave Accent Character () PowerShell uses the grave accent () character as its escape character. Just add it before each space in the file name. (You’ll find this character above the Tab key and below the Esc key on your keyboard.)

WshShell.Run("powershell -file \"" + pathvar + "\*My `  Tests*\\PickupTest.ps1")  

Here is a helpful page with information about Windows PowerShell

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/powershell

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--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer.--

You appear to have noted the issue with the spaces in the file path, but other characters in this path are also causing problems, including the square brackets. The simplest solution is to tell PowerShell that the path is literally a path, literally.

So, use the 'LiteralPath' parameter:

cd -LiteralPath 'W:\_DITRH\__Featured Video Placeholder\__TISTL\10 [20151228] TISTL Sofia Smallstorm 10'