Batch syntax issue. Not quoting or escaping correctly?

Question

There's some syntax that I'm missing here. Running this batch file:

for /d %a in ("c:\Documents and Settings\*.*") do mkdir "%a\Application Data\vlc"
for /d %a in ("c:\Documents and Settings\*.*") do echo qt-privacy-ask=0 > "%a\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc"

And I get this output:

\Documents was unexpected at this time.

Answer 1

I found the issue... it seems like batch needs double %% for variables? Not sure but this worked:

for /d %%a in ("c:\Documents and Settings\*.*") do (
    mkdir "%%a\Application Data\vlc"
    echo qt-privacy-ask=0 > "%%a\Application Data\vlc\vlcrc" 
)

Answer 2

yeah you got it, official reference: microsoft

FOR command

Use %variable to carry out for from the command prompt. Use %%variable to carry out the for command within a batch file.