Jeff Moden - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 9:00 PM

While I absolutely agree that PowerShell is powerful, Cmd.Exe is not deprecated and isn't likely to ever be.  Neither is xp_CmdShell.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/system-stored-procedures/xp-cmdshell-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2017
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/deprecated-database-engine-features-in-sql-server-2016?view=sql-server-2017
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/deprecated-database-engine-features-in-sql-server-2017?view=sql-server-2017
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/deprecated-features

In fact, it seems that MS is committed to keeping the Windows Cmd Shell up and running.  Here's the link and an important quote from that article, supposedly made from someone at MS authorized to say so.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3149115/operating-systems/follow-up-ms-dos-lives-on-after-all.html?nsdr=true
"The Windows Cmd shell has a long heritage and is an essential tool used by millions of businesses, users, and developers every day. It remains an integral part of Windows.â€

Every article that I've seen about the speculated demise of Cmd.exe is trumped by the article above.  In all the searching I've done on the "deprecation of Cmd.exe", I've not come across even one official MS document that said there are any plans to do so.  Read about the most recent updates.  Note the date in the article.  March 7th, 2018.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/03/07/windows10v1803/

BWAAA-HAAA... remember back when they said ODBC was "dead"?