With the replace function we can replace any character we want, very simply. When Powershell was trying to enter this name as the name of a sheet in Excel, it was failing to add it correctly. The backslash (\) is a typographical mark used merely for computer coding and file names. So I needed to replace the backslash in the string with a different character. Now: if the person leans backward, he/she looks like a backslash; if the person leans forward, he/she looks like a forward slash; Applications. This all wouldn’t really matter today, but web browsers follow the Unix convention and use / characters for web page addresses. Why Everything Else Uses Forward Slashes. In PowerShell 7 preview 3 on Windows, tab completion completes paths using a backslash. Backslash is used for: file names in DOS and Windows, e.g. for instance: I have tried numerous permutations of quotes, etc. Thus there are two types of slashes in the English language: a backslash (\) and a forward slash (/). The symbol (\) is called a backslash, while (/) is called a forward slash, which is also known as a virgule, a stroke or even an oblique dash. Visually identifying the difference between slash and backslash is quite easy as the former leans forward while the other leans backward. The key here is to use -replace function. It seems to be getting confused with the forward slashes. A typical Windows user sees a forward slash when they type a web address and a backslash when they type the location of a local folder, so this can be confusing. In Windows , backslashes are used to separate directories in file paths (ex: C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ ). I get errors like: ... Its interpreting this as a string literal, interprets the slash as division operator. PowerShell - Running a program with forward-slash options. but it won't seem to work. Forward Slash: / A good way to remember the difference between a backslash and a forward slash is that a backslash leans backwards ( \ ), while a forward slash leans forward ( / ). However, there is a huge difference between them in usage as they are used for a variety of purposes and refer to different things in different contexts. That is the one place where I think we're doing it wrong now that PowerShell is cross platform. C:\Python31\python.exe, C:\cs8\cTurtle.py escape sequences in C, Unix, and other languages/systems that borrow the same syntax (C++, Java, etc.)