[headbiznatch]

Powershell is really quite good if you don't mind learning a slightly different shell. And there are good tools to extend it (PowerGUI is one I like).

[kjerk]

Powershell on ConEmu is a joy to use, especially after you add in posh-git. When I found out Powershell can instantiate and call .net objects and functions (including threads) I immediately set out to convert all my batch scripts to powershell scripts and haven't looked back.

[headbiznatch]

Nice! Thanks.

[shadowfox]

ISE on Powershell 3.0 is also somewhat useful