Monad
Microsoft is developing a new shell called Monad or msh. I believe that originally this technology was slated to be deployed with Longhorn but you can actually use the beta now as long as you have Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 and the .NET framework 2.0.
The new msh has power of the *nix shells (bash and k) and much more. A typical *nix command might look like this “ls -a | more”. Where the text output of ls is piped through the more command. In the new msh, when you pipe the output of commands from one to another, you are actually piping .NET objects instead of text. These .NET objects have all their properties exposed to the new command. It’s pretty interesting. Here is a good introductory write up and some introductory videos as well (below).
1. You will need need a passport account. If you do not have one yet, you can sign-up for one at the beta website listed below.
2. Goto http://beta.microsoft.com
3. Log into the site using the following guest ID: mshPDC
4. Select Microsoft Command Shell
5. Select Survey in the left column
6. Register with a valid email address.
7. Wait for the information to be sent to you through email. (May take a day or two)
8. Once you receive your confirmation email, log back into http://beta.microsoft.com for the content
