diff --git a/m2-bootstrap-all.bat b/m2-bootstrap-all.bat
index b1a4c43f03..7af7f6413f 100644
--- a/m2-bootstrap-all.bat
+++ b/m2-bootstrap-all.bat
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ goto Win9xApp
 @REM Reaching here means variables are defined and arguments have been captured
 :endInit
 SET MAVEN_JAVA_EXE="%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe"
-SET MAVEN_CMD_LINE_ARGS=%MAVEN_CMD_LINE_ARGS% -Dmaven.home=%M2_HOME%
+SET MAVEN_CMD_LINE_ARGS=%MAVEN_CMD_LINE_ARGS% -Dmaven.home="%M2_HOME%"
 
 @REM Build MBoot2
 cd maven-mboot2
diff --git a/maven-core-it/maven-core-it.bat b/maven-core-it/maven-core-it.bat
index 34ab25864c..fd4c690bfa 100755
--- a/maven-core-it/maven-core-it.bat
+++ b/maven-core-it/maven-core-it.bat
@@ -20,5 +20,5 @@
 @REM NOTE: for simplicity, only Windows NT/2000/XP is current supported
 @REM This also assumes that M2_HOME and JAVA_HOME are set, which are verified in the bootstrap script only
 
-%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe %* -Dmaven.home=%M2_HOME% -cp "..\maven-core-it-verifier\target\maven-core-it-verifier-1.0.jar" org.apache.maven.it.Verifier
+%JAVA_HOME%\bin\java.exe %* -Dmaven.home="%M2_HOME%" -cp "..\maven-core-it-verifier\target\maven-core-it-verifier-1.0.jar" org.apache.maven.it.Verifier