Question

This script works great to accept some read-host prompts and create a website with an app pool tied to it. The password prompt works except our most common password is !$Pass!123!! and it will not allow me to receive it as input. How do you allow these characters to be used?

Import-Module WebAdministration

# Get Web Site Variables
$WebSite = Read-Host -Prompt "DNS name for Web Site"
$AppPoolName = Read-Host -Prompt "Application Pool Name"
[string]$AppPoolUser = Read-Host -Prompt "Application Pool Username Domain not required ex. PXML.Proxy$"
$Password = Read-Host -Prompt "Application Pool Account Password, try ` before $ in password"
$HostHeader = Read-Host -Prompt "Host Header Name"
# cmd /c C:\scripts\BaseIIS.cmd $WebServer $AppPool $AppPoolUser $Password $HostName
New-Item -path d:\Websites -itemtype directory
New-Item -path d:\Logs -itemtype directory
New-Item -path d:\Logs\$WebSite -itemtype directory
New-Item -path d:\websites\$WebSite -itemtype directory

Answer 1

The problem in the input isn’t the dollar sign($) but the starting exclamation mark(!)
You need to escape it with another one.

You password need to be inputed as: !!$Pass!123!!

Read here to know more about this

Why not using get-credential cmdlet:

$cred = Get-Credential -Message "Insert Username and Passsword"    
$cred.GetNetworkCredential().UserName
Jacob    
$cred.GetNetworkCredential().Password
!$Pass!123!!

or you can use:

$Password = Read-Host -Prompt "Application Pool Account Password" -assecurestring
[String]$Password = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($Password))