How to properly search for wildcard characters using variables in PowerShell?

Question

When doing string comparison, the -like comparator is my usual go-to solution.

But there is one odd thing I cant wrap my head around when using wildcards with variables.

String example

This will work...

$Test = 'My string'
$Test -like "My*"

True

This will mess some things up

$Test = '[My string]'
$Test -like "[My*"

WildcardPatternException: The specified wildcard character pattern is not valid: [My*

$Test -like '`[My*'
True

Variable example

But how do I use this with a variable used as search argument?

$Test = 'My string'
$Search = 'My'

$Test -like "$Search*"

True

This will fail as [ will be parsed as part of a wildcard construction...

$Test = '[My string]'
$Search = '[My'

$Test -like "$Search*"

WildcardPatternException: The specified wildcard character pattern is not valid: [My*

I need the literal content of $Search to be used instead...

Work around

One work around is of course not to use [ in the search variable

$Test = '[My string]'
$Search = 'My'

$Test -like "*$Search*"

True

But that will of course catch more strings then [My.

Answer 1

Ok, I actually thought I tried this...
But I must have missed this solution somehow.

$Test = '[My string]'
$Search = '`[My'

$Test -like "$Search*"

True

So escaping special characters in the variable declaration do work.

'`*'
'`\'
'`~'
'`;'
'`('
'`%'
'`?'
'`.'
'`:'
'`@'
'`/'
'``'

Edit

I found out the actual issue I was having. In my own code, I was actually using a variable to define my search variable.

$Test = '[My string]'

$SearchString = 'My'
$Search = "``[$SearchString" #I need to escape the escape character at this point...

$Test -like "$Search*"

True