diff --git a/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1 b/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1
index 6a312b773d3..0f299db230e 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1
+++ b/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1
@@ -1608,7 +1608,7 @@ function Configure_Containerd {
 # Register if needed and start containerd service.
 function Start_Containerd {
   # Do the registration only if the containerd service does not exist.
-  if (Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_Service -Filter  "Name='containerd'" -eq $null) {
+  if ((Get-WMIObject -Class Win32_Service -Filter  "Name='containerd'") -eq $null) {
     Log-Output "Creating containerd service"
     & containerd.exe --register-service --log-file "${env:LOGS_DIR}/containerd.log"
   }