# File beat on windows

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-beat-on-windows/143695>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** filebeat\
**Created:** [August 9, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-beat-on-windows/143695 "2018-08-09T12:57:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![raph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@raph](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/raph)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-beat-on-windows/143695/1 "2018-08-09T12:57:02Z")

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Hi,  
I'm having an issue with filebeat on windows, why this error ?  
thanks,

 ![filebeat](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/0/10327403235ce72035ea7c85f7864e953bfdd6b1.png)

and my yml file:

 ![yml](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/4/a/4afc159fdd812de6e799d1cfbb6d2cd90433731e.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![shaunak](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/shaunak/32/6643_2.png) [@shaunak](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shaunak)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-beat-on-windows/143695/2 "2018-08-09T17:42:01Z")

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Check for trailing spaces in your YAML file and remove them.

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**Author:** ![adrisr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/adrisr/32/25423_2.png) [@adrisr](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/adrisr)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-beat-on-windows/143695/3 "2018-08-09T19:02:20Z")

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The problem is here:

```auto
ssl.certificate_authorities: [ "C:\Users\...

```

Windows paths use `\` as a separator instead of `/`, and if you wrap them in double-quotes, they will be interpreted as an escape character. In your case `\U` is interpreted as an unicode escape and that's why it's expecting a hexadecimal number after it.

To avoid this problems, either:

- Use single quotes (`'C:\Users...`) instead of double-quotes
- Use slash as a path-separator (`"C:/Users/...`)

See our [YAML tips & gotchas](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/yaml-tips.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-beat-on-windows/143695/4 "2018-09-06T19:02:34Z")

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