diff --git a/src/bin/startGroovy.bat b/src/bin/startGroovy.bat
index 7f27e49ae9..6f51ca5d1d 100644
--- a/src/bin/startGroovy.bat
+++ b/src/bin/startGroovy.bat
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ goto process_arg
 
 :get_arg
 rem remove quotes around first arg
-for %%i in (%1) do set _ARG=%_ARG% %%~i
+for /f %%i in (%1) do set _ARG=%_ARG% %%~i
 rem set the remaining args
 set _ARGS=%2
 rem remove the leading space we'll add the first time