but because I much prefer cmd.exe to (z|k|z|ba)sh

I'd be interested in knowing your reasons for this. I do most of my work at a linux shell prompt, and I've never really found cmd.exe to be useful for anything other than starting console programs.

I'm not trying to start some windows vs linux flamewar here. I've only had to write a couple of batch files in the last few years, so maybe cmd.exe has more functionality now.

This is one of the uglies from my last script:

For with the bash equivalent would be a simple

A quick google also still doesn't turn up any way to create functions in cmd. And command line editing functionality in cmd appears to lack a lot of the (to me) convenient bash stuff as well

So what's the thing that makes cmd preferable for you?