title: Anaconda activate batch file character escaping doesn't work like windows command line
body: <p>I'm trying to set a secret key in my activate file for an anaconda environment on windows.  The secret key contains special characters that need to be escaped (eg <code>%</code> and <code>^</code>).  Let's say the secret key literal is <code>foobar%foo^bar%foo</code>. On the command line I can run:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SET SECRET_KEY=foobar^%foo^^^^bar^%foo
  ECHO %SECRET_KEY%
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And it returns <code>foobar%foo^bar%foo</code></p>
  
  <p>However in \etc\activate.d\env_vars.bat as described <a href="https://conda.io/docs/user-guide/tasks/manage-environments.html#windows" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> I have the same line <code>SET SECRET_KEY=foobar^%foo^^^^bar^%foo</code>, I activate the environment and run the <code>ECHO %SECRET_KEY%</code> command and I get <code>foobarfoo</code> returned.</p>
  
  <p>Does anyone know how to escape the characters properly to get the correct string set in the environmental variable?</p>
  
  <p>Windows 7 64-bit, Python 2.7, Conda 4.4.10</p>