Passing Caret to command line using VBScript - vbscript

Question

Having a hard time figuring this one out. I have a vbscript that asks for username and password. Then the script runs PSExec.exe passing those to the command line like this.
strUser = Inputbox("Username:","Username")
strPassword = Inputbox("Password:","Password")
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run "%comspec% /K psexec.exe \\workstation -u " & struser _
& " -p " & strPassword & " -d calc.exe", 1, false
This works fine if the password doesn't have a caret in it. BUT if it does have one, for example if the password is "Pass)(*&^%$##!" I get the following error from psexec.
'%$##!' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
The caret is being read by the command line as a space so it thinks it's trying to run this command.
psexec.exe \\workstation64 -u User -p Pass)(*& %$##! -d Calc.exe
As you can see there is a space instead of a caret so psexec see's %$##! as the command.
I've seen an example for passing it when using a batch file but it doesn't work in this case. It said adding an extra ^ like this ^^ works in a bat file.
How can I pass a caret to the command line????
UPDATE......
I worked on this for about 45 minutes today at work and couldn't get it to work. First thing I tried was to add quotes to the password and it still didn't work. I just tested it here at the house and it worked fine....... OS at work is Windows XP and at home I run Windows 7. I will try again in the morning to make sure I didn't mistype something. Here is what I did to make it work at home on Windows 7.
strUser = Inputbox("Username:","Username")
strPassword = Inputbox("Password:","Password")
strPassword = chr(34) & strPassword & chr(34)
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run "%comspec% /K psexec.exe \\workstation -u " & struser _
& " -p " & strPassword & " -d calc.exe", 1, false

Answer 1

The problem lays in using of ampersand, not caret: single ampersand is used as a command separator, so rest of the line after &-sign considered to be a next command by cmd interpreter.
In next example I have used SET command instead of PSExec, as I will not experiment with PSExec.
All goes well with SET command, even if escaped all characters:), but I'm not sure about percentage sign, which is said "must be doubled to use literally".
Dim strPssw: strPssw = "/Pass"")=(*&^%$##!"
Dim ii, strChar, strEscape
Dim strPassword: strPassword = ""
For ii = 1 To Len( strPssw) 'cannot use Replace() function
strChar = Mid( strPssw, ii, 1)
Select Case strChar
Case "&", """", "^", "%", "=", _
"#", "(", ")", "!", "*", "?", _
".", "\", "|", ">", "<", "/"
strEscape = "^"
Case Else
strEscape = "" 'all goes well even if strEscape = "^" here
End Select
strPassword = strPassword & strEscape & strChar
Next
Dim objShell: Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run "%comspec% /C set varia=" & strPassword & "&set varia&pause&set varia=", 1, false
' # - At Symbol: be less verbose
' & - Single Ampersand: used as a command separator
' ^ - Caret: general escape character in batch
' " - Double Quote: surrounding a string in double quotes escapes all of the characters contained within it
' () - Parentheses: used to make "code blocks" of grouped commands
' % - Percentage Sign: are used to mark some variables, must be doubled to use literally
' ! - Exclamation Mark: to mark delayed expansion environment variables !variable!
' * - Asterisk: wildcard matches any number or any characters
' ? - Question Mark: matches any single character
' . - Single dot: represents the current directory
' \ - Backslash: represent the root directory of a drive dir ^\
' | - Single Pipe: redirects the std.output of one command into the std.input of another
' > - Single Greater Than: redirects output to either a file or file like device
' < - Less Than: redirect the contents of a file to the std.input of a command
''
' && - Double Ampersand: conditional command separator (if errorlevel 0)
' .. - Double dot: represents the parent directory of the current directory
' || - Double Pipe: conditional command separator (if errorlevel > 0)
' :: - Double Colon: alternative to "rem" for comments outside of code blocks
' >> - Double Greater than: output will be added to the very end of the file
' thanks to http://judago.webs.com/batchoperators.htm
'