Technically speaking, the command line is the CMD.EXE program. There are various options for accessing the command line in Windows. In this way, users can create script programs with the PowerShell scripting language. For example, automations can be created better with PowerShell. In addition, however, there’s also the “PowerShell”: This offers more options than CMD.EXE. In general, the connection between operating system – regardless of whether graphical (GUI = graphical user interface) or text-based (CLI = command line interpreter) was condensed under the term “ Shell.” The default command line interpreter for Windows is called CMD.EXE. But even after the switch to graphical operating systems, the command line remained text-based. Instead, you had to type in all commands – the directory structures were then displayed as plain text on the screen. In older operating systems (like MS-DOS), you had to work without a graphical user interface, and oftentimes even navigate without a mouse. This makes it possible, for example, to organize files, start programs, or run other commands linked to the operating system, computer, or network. The command line (also called the console or terminal) is a text-based interface within the operating system, that forwards commands from the user to the operating system.
