PowerShell
is Microsoft's replacement for the well-worn command prompt. It's pretty slick - definitely puts Windows on par with Unix in terms of shells. Unlike command.com or cmd.exe, it's an actual programming language - with first-class functions, no less. It's got all the usual functional programming language friends - though the names have all been changed ("map" is spelled "foreach-object", "filter" is spelled "where"). What distinguishes it from other scripting languages is the amount of effort that's been put into making Windows features easily available. PowerShell makes it easy to access .Net, COM, WMI, the registry, you name it. Examples: