I have this batch script which does something which shouldn't be important. I want to check if a file was drug into the window and thus was selected. It works when no file is entered, but when a file is entered it gives the error "or was unexpected at this time." which has me puzzeled. @echo off setlocal enabledelayedexpansion echo drag and drop sfv onto window set /p settings= cls if "%settings%" == "" goto fail for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%x in (%settings%) do ( call :check %%x if /I not "!z:~0,8!" == "!z:~14,22!" echo %%x set z= ) goto end :check set x= %1 %2 :again if "%x:~-1%" == "[" set s=%z% & goto :EOF set z=%x:~-1%%z% set x=%x:~0,-1% goto again :fail echo no file selected :end pause

[Edit] Try the "if not defined settings goto fail" bit first, especially if you file will always contain "[" [/Edit] I suspect your problems are coming from trying to use variables that are undefined. Try adding this line just below the :again label. if not defined x goto :eof I can also see another problem as well, the first time you call check %z% is also undefined, so if the last character of %x% was "[" %s% would be set to nothing. It may be a good idea to promote the line "set z=%x:~-1%%z%" above the line above it, making any other adjustments necessary, to ensure it can deal with the possibility. You could also use "if not defined settings goto fail" instead of "if "%settings%" == "" goto fail" Without knowing more about your text file's contents and your objective I'm not sure if this will fix the problem or not.