How to Open and Use the Windows Terminal in Quake Mode
Windows Terminal is a Microsoft app used to work in command-line tools such as PowerShell, Command Prompt, and WSL. It includes several useful features including Quake mode.
How to use Quake mode in Windows Terminal.
What is Quake mode and why should you use it?
Windows Terminal is a fast and efficient way to simplify using command-line tools. You can download it from the Microsoft Store.
Windows Terminal’s main features include multiple tabs, panes, and a GPU-accelerated text rendering engine. There are also custom themes, styles, and configurations. And of course the Quake mode.
With Quake mode enabled, you can quickly open a new terminal instance from any app. The terminal window opens from the top of the screen and fills the entire width of the screen. You can then hide the terminal window so it can be opened whenever you need it.
The name Quake mode refers to the similar-looking terminal window you can open in the iD Software game Quake.
If you don’t know what Quake is, why not check out some classic PC FPS games? Great fun even if you have a modern PC.
How to open Windows Terminal in Quake mode
There are two ways to open Windows Terminal in Quake mode.
The first is to press victory + R to open the execute dialog. Enter in the text box wt -w _quake. Be sure to include the spaces after the t and before the underscore.
You can also open the Windows Terminal app normally. You can find it in the main list of Start menu apps if you are new to the app. With the app open in default mode, press win + ` (the grave accent key below Esc on the keyboard).
If you want the command line tool to run as an administrator, you must use the second method. Learn how to open Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt as an administrator.
Hide and restore the terminal window
The idea of Quake mode is to provide the ability to always have a terminal window available. Even in a full-screen app or when you can’t click a Terminal shortcut on the taskbar.
Once Windows Terminal is in Quake mode, you can hide it by pressing win + `. It remains active but fades out off-screen.
To show the window again, press the same key combination.
The Quake mode terminal window spans the entire width of the screen. By default, it fills about half the screen height. Unfortunately, you can’t change the width, but you can click and drag the bottom edge of the panel to make it less intrusive.
Closing the terminal window in Quake mode
As mentioned, the Windows key + ` Shortcut doesn’t close the terminal window; it just hides it. Even closing the original Windows Terminal window does not remove the Quake mode window.
When the Quake mode terminal window is on the screen, a terminal icon appears in the taskbar. You can hover over this icon and click X in the Peek preview window.
If you don’t see a peek preview, you can right-click the terminal icon in the system tray and select Close the window.
If the Windows taskbar is not working for some reason, these options will not be available. Instead, you can close the Quake mode terminal window by typing EXIT in the terminal and press To return.
Using Windows Terminal’s Quake mode
The Windows Terminal is a great way to work in command-line apps like PowerShell and Windows Subsystem for Linux. The ability to run it in Quake mode means you’ll always have access to the terminal you need, no matter what you’re doing on your PC.