cmd.exe most certainly does execute the pipeline in parallel, much as unixes do. The old MS-DOS command.com would not (since only single process at a time execu

cmd.exe most certainly does execute the pipeline in parallel, much as unixes do. The old MS-DOS command.com would not (since only single process at a time execution was even supported). I have no idea if the Windows 9X/ME version of command.com worked the same way as dos or not, and I don't feel like firing up a VM to find out. Now cmd.exe has maintained a lot of stupidity, and even many obvious bugs from the old command.com executable, in order to ensure that positively ancient script still run as expected. (This includes horribleness like the cmd.exe code not being able to read ahead in the .bat file, in order to support old self-modifying .bat file tricks!). But sequential-only pipelines are not part of the stupidity that was kept in place.