title: How do I escape ampersands in batch files?
body: <p>How do I escape ampersands in a batch file (or from the 
  Windows command line) in order to use the <code>start</code> command to 
  open web pages with ampersands in the URL?</p>
  
  <p>Double quotes will not work with <code>start</code>; this starts a new 
  command-line window instead.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Update 1</strong>: Wael Dalloul's solution works. In addition, if 
  there are URL encoded characters (e.g. space is encoded as 
  %20) in the URL and <em>it is in a batch file</em> then '%' must be 
  encoded as '%%'. This is not the case in the example.</p>
  
  <p>Example, from the command line (<code>CMD.EXE</code>):</p>
  
  <pre><code>start http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&amp;rls=en&amp;q=escape+ampersand&amp;sourceid=opera&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>will result in </p>
  
  <pre><code>http://www.google.com/search?client=opera 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>being opened in the default browser and these errors in the command line window:</p>
  
  <pre><code>'rls' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
  operable program or batch file.
  'q' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
  operable program or batch file.
  'sourceid' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
  operable program or batch file.
  'ie' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
  operable program or batch file.
  'oe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
  operable program or batch file.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Platform: Windows XP 64 bit SP2.</p>