I haven't done any Windows dev since last year, but I've often wondered why more .NET devs don't use Cmder. I've always been a fan of a full-screen console with split panes (tmux style), and other developers have looked at me like I'm some sort of wizard, despite using fairly basic tech.

Sure, it takes a little while to get used to Powershell, but once you get over the hump it's really useful knowledge to have, especially if you have anything to do with devops or deployments.

cmd is the shell, Cmder (which is just a wrapper around ConEmu) is the console/terminal. Both have little to do with each other, apart from that one needs the other to show a window.

G'ah - PLEASE read the posts about which you're commenting - Cmder is a terminal/Console, not a shell.

Cmd.exe is a (headless) command-line shell.

A shell accepts input from a terminal/Console and emits text to its connected terminal/Console to be displayed back to the user.

All this is covered in some detail in the posts thus far.