For simple scripting I've switched to Powershell (formerly Windows PowerShell). It's OSS, you can use it from the command line and it's available on Windows/OS X/Linux.

https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell

How does it compare to Python?

It has a lot in common with Python, but the syntax is more C like when you're scripting, but can be used like a standard shell as well.

The learning curve is partially steep as it takes time to learn the advantages and complexity of piping objects around instead of text streams (like Linux does).

The major deal breaker for me is that file reads and writes which are glacially slow. Like waayyy slower than Python if you can believe it even if you basically call the .NET libraries directly instead of the cmdlets.

So it makes the most sense for Windows IT admin tasks.

What sets it apart IMHO is that it return records instead of just string so you can declare which fields you are interested in instead of trying to parse the string output with "cut"

It has absolutely lost some mindshare, but I still think it's a great choice.