Caret not working in batch file, works in Command Prompt

Question

I use this script to get the results of a url:

@Echo off
For /f "delims=" %%A in (
  'powershell -NonI -NoP -C "(Invoke-Webrequest "%~1").content"'
) Do set Line=%%A

I can call it in a command prompt window like this:

 WebResponse.cmd "http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=%friend1%"

I need to use the caret ( ^ ) to cancel out the Equal sign. However when I run that same line of code in my batch file it does not work. According to the test, %~1 is set to "http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka" but the powershell portion returns this:

Invoke-WebRequest : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'Lukaka'. [] http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka 
At line:1 char:2 [] http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka 
+ (Invoke-Webrequest http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.p ... [] http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka 
+  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [] http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka 
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Invoke-WebRequest], ParameterBindingException [] http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka 
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand [] http://websiteremoved.com/teststat.php?username^=Lukaka 

Any ideas as to why it is doing this? Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

The way I was doing it was inefficient. I am closing this question. I am working on a different version of a new script here: Add Multiple URLs to this Powershell Script? which is related.