The Windows Command Prompt command line is a simple Win32 application. It has the capability of interacting with any other Win32 application or object within the Windows operating system.

By default, it uses your system’s preferred command line, but it’s easy to switch between cmd.exe and PowerShell, and even to open a Bash terminal if you’re running Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Back in '70s and early '80s, if you used a computer, you used a command line. DOS -- the disk operating system that runs atop IBM PCs -- used a command line interface, and that's what UNIX used too.