diff --git a/provisioner/powershell/elevated.go b/provisioner/powershell/elevated.go
index d2c23f757..f8adb6cd1 100644
--- a/provisioner/powershell/elevated.go
+++ b/provisioner/powershell/elevated.go
@@ -5,11 +5,11 @@ import (
 )
 
 type elevatedOptions struct {
-	User            string
-	Password        string
-	TaskName        string
-	TaskDescription string
-	EncodedCommand  string
+	User              string
+	Password          string
+	TaskName          string
+	TaskDescription   string
+	XMLEscapedCommand string
 }
 
 var elevatedTemplate = template.Must(template.New("ElevatedCommand").Parse(`
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ $t.XmlText = @'
   <Actions Context="Author">
     <Exec>
       <Command>cmd</Command>
-	  <Arguments>/c powershell.exe -EncodedCommand {{.EncodedCommand}} &gt; %SYSTEMROOT%\Temp\{{.TaskName}}.out 2&gt;&amp;1</Arguments>
+      <Arguments>/c {{.XMLEscapedCommand}} &gt; %SYSTEMROOT%\Temp\{{.TaskName}}.out 2&gt;&amp;1</Arguments>
     </Exec>
   </Actions>
 </Task>
diff --git a/provisioner/powershell/powershell.go b/provisioner/powershell/powershell.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 086e3e554..000000000
--- a/provisioner/powershell/powershell.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
-package powershell
-
-import (
-	"encoding/base64"
-	"encoding/binary"
-	"unicode/utf16"
-	"unicode/utf8"
-
-	"golang.org/x/text/encoding/unicode"
-)
-
-func convertUtf8ToUtf16LE(message string) (string, error) {
-	utf16le := unicode.UTF16(unicode.LittleEndian, unicode.IgnoreBOM)
-	utfEncoder := utf16le.NewEncoder()
-	ut16LeEncodedMessage, err := utfEncoder.String(message)
-
-	return ut16LeEncodedMessage, err
-}
-
-// UTF16BytesToString converts UTF-16 encoded bytes, in big or little endian byte order,
-// to a UTF-8 encoded string.
-func UTF16BytesToString(b []byte, o binary.ByteOrder) string {
-	utf := make([]uint16, (len(b)+(2-1))/2)
-	for i := 0; i+(2-1) < len(b); i += 2 {
-		utf[i/2] = o.Uint16(b[i:])
-	}
-	if len(b)/2 < len(utf) {
-		utf[len(utf)-1] = utf8.RuneError
-	}
-	return string(utf16.Decode(utf))
-}
-
-func powershellEncode(message string) (string, error) {
-	utf16LEEncodedMessage, err := convertUtf8ToUtf16LE(message)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-
-	// Base64 encode the command
-	input := []uint8(utf16LEEncodedMessage)
-	return base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(input), nil
-}
-
-func powershellDecode(messageBase64 string) (retour string, err error) {
-	messageUtf16LeByteArray, err := base64.StdEncoding.DecodeString(messageBase64)
-
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", err
-	}
-
-	message := UTF16BytesToString(messageUtf16LeByteArray, binary.LittleEndian)
-
-	return message, nil
-}
diff --git a/provisioner/powershell/provisioner.go b/provisioner/powershell/provisioner.go
index fd967ce86..1481d6ddc 100644
--- a/provisioner/powershell/provisioner.go
+++ b/provisioner/powershell/provisioner.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package powershell
 import (
 	"bufio"
 	"bytes"
+	"encoding/xml"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
@@ -112,7 +113,7 @@ func (p *Provisioner) Prepare(raws ...interface{}) error {
 	}
 
 	if p.config.EnvVarFormat == "" {
-		p.config.EnvVarFormat = `$env:%s="%s"; `
+		p.config.EnvVarFormat = `$env:%s=\"%s\"; `
 	}
 
 	if p.config.ElevatedEnvVarFormat == "" {
@@ -120,11 +121,11 @@ func (p *Provisioner) Prepare(raws ...interface{}) error {
 	}
 
 	if p.config.ExecuteCommand == "" {
-		p.config.ExecuteCommand = `if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'};{{.Vars}}&'{{.Path}}';exit $LastExitCode`
+		p.config.ExecuteCommand = `powershell -executionpolicy bypass "& { if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'};{{.Vars}}&'{{.Path}}';exit $LastExitCode }"`
 	}
 
 	if p.config.ElevatedExecuteCommand == "" {
-		p.config.ElevatedExecuteCommand = `if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'}; . {{.Vars}}; &'{{.Path}}'; exit $LastExitCode`
+		p.config.ElevatedExecuteCommand = `powershell -executionpolicy bypass "& { if (Test-Path variable:global:ProgressPreference){$ProgressPreference='SilentlyContinue'};. {{.Vars}}; &'{{.Path}}'; exit $LastExitCode }"`
 	}
 
 	if p.config.Inline != nil && len(p.config.Inline) == 0 {
@@ -389,25 +390,8 @@ func (p *Provisioner) createCommandTextNonPrivileged() (command string, err erro
 		return "", fmt.Errorf("Error processing command: %s", err)
 	}
 
-	commandText, err := p.generateCommandLineRunner(command)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("Error generating command line runner: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	return commandText, err
-}
-
-func (p *Provisioner) generateCommandLineRunner(command string) (commandText string, err error) {
-	log.Printf("Building command line for: %s", command)
-
-	base64EncodedCommand, err := powershellEncode(command)
-	if err != nil {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("Error encoding command: %s", err)
-	}
-
-	commandText = "powershell -executionpolicy bypass -encodedCommand " + base64EncodedCommand
-
-	return commandText, nil
+	// Return the interpolated command
+	return command, nil
 }
 
 func (p *Provisioner) createCommandTextPrivileged() (command string, err error) {
@@ -449,20 +433,26 @@ func (p *Provisioner) createCommandTextPrivileged() (command string, err error)
 func (p *Provisioner) generateElevatedRunner(command string) (uploadedPath string, err error) {
 	log.Printf("Building elevated command wrapper for: %s", command)
 
-	// generate command
 	var buffer bytes.Buffer
 
-	base64EncodedCommand, err := powershellEncode(command)
+	// elevatedTemplate wraps the command in a single quoted XML text
+	// string so we need to escape characters considered 'special' in XML.
+	err = xml.EscapeText(&buffer, []byte(command))
 	if err != nil {
-		return "", fmt.Errorf("Error encoding command: %s", err)
+		return "", fmt.Errorf("Error escaping characters special to XML in command %s: %s", command, err)
 	}
+	escapedCommand := buffer.String()
+	log.Printf("Command [%s] converted to [%s] for use in XML string", command, escapedCommand)
+
+	buffer.Reset()
 
+	// Generate command
 	err = elevatedTemplate.Execute(&buffer, elevatedOptions{
-		User:            p.config.ElevatedUser,
-		Password:        p.config.ElevatedPassword,
-		TaskDescription: "Packer elevated task",
-		TaskName:        fmt.Sprintf("packer-%s", uuid.TimeOrderedUUID()),
-		EncodedCommand:  base64EncodedCommand,
+		User:              p.config.ElevatedUser,
+		Password:          p.config.ElevatedPassword,
+		TaskDescription:   "Packer elevated task",
+		TaskName:          fmt.Sprintf("packer-%s", uuid.TimeOrderedUUID()),
+		XMLEscapedCommand: escapedCommand,
 	})
 
 	if err != nil {