Recently there has been a lot of hype and talk about Monad Shell (a.k.a MSH), not sure why, but such are the state of things.
What is Monad? Simply it is the new command line interface to the Windows Server OS and is code named Monad Shell. It is fairly powerful and has its roots set in VMS and AS400 environments. I would check out the quick demo (15 mins) thats shows the power of the shell - very exciting and interesting.
What all does it do? Well for one you can check out the home page (unofficial of course), the FAQ and the Wiki . Make sure to read the online chat with the architect.
How do I get it? You can sign up for the Beta program and install it on Windows XP or 2003.
Can I play with it? Absolutely, to get the full “power” of it, make sure you check out the demo first and then read up on the adventures in Monad after which you can take a crack at writing some new extensions in .NET.