Working With Weird Filenames

Files with "--"

Use the .\ prefix for relative paths or specify the full path.

For cmdlets, you might also use the --% operator, which signals PowerShell to stop parsing the command line, passing the rest of the command directly to a native command.

Get-Content .\--weirdfilename.txt

Remove-Item --% --weirdfilename.txt

Leading or Trailing Spaces

Enclose the filename in quotes and use the backtick (`) as the escape character for trailing spaces in PowerShell.

Get-Content "filenameWithTrailingSpace `.txt"

Remove-Item "filenameWithTrailingSpace `.txt"

Wildcard Characters (*, ?)

Directly use them in quotes if they are part of the filename.

Get-Content "file*.txt"

Remove-Item 'file?.txt'