diff --git a/inc/confutils.php b/inc/confutils.php
index 1415d48f6fdf1096298284d934a6b485e63e1062..9432c10d594549599f503f3e0df4ebb64a50ade9 100644
--- a/inc/confutils.php
+++ b/inc/confutils.php
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ function confToHash($file,$lower=false) {
 
   foreach ( $lines as $line ) {
     //ignore comments
-    $line = preg_replace('/[^&]?#.*$/','',$line);
+    $line = preg_replace('/(?<!&)#.*$/','',$line);
     $line = trim($line);
     if(empty($line)) continue;
     $line = preg_split('/\s+/',$line,2);