If you spend a ton of time in the Windows command line, there’s a Windows Terminal feature that’ll fundamentally change how you work—and chances are you’ve never heard of it.
Windows Terminal updates have quietly made it incredible over the years, but Microsoft devs sneaked this video-game-inspired feature back in 2021. And for the productivity boost it is, it really should be more popular.
Welcome to Quake Mode
Instantly summon Windows Terminal with a single shortcut, anywhere in Windows
Imagine being able to drop a terminal window from the top of your screen with a keyboard shortcut, then dismiss it just as quickly. No hunting through the taskbar, no opening a new window, no Alt+Tabbing through your apps. You press a shortcut, and the terminal appears—you press it again, and it’s gone. That’s Quake mode.
The feature was added in Windows Terminal 1.9 preview in May 2021, and as you can probably guess, is inspired by the popular video game Quake. The game’s console would famously slide down from the top of the screen. Microsoft’s team decided this was such a good UX pattern that they baked it directly into Windows Terminal.
Getting started is also ridiculously simple. The feature is enabled by default, so whenever you have an active Windows Terminal window ready, just press the Windows Key + ` and the terminal will show up.
The Backtick Key (`) is usually found below the escape key on your keyboard.
After you fire up Quake mode for the first time, you can close any open Windows Terminal window, and it automatically runs in the background. The terminal session stays active the whole time. This is important because it means you can close the window, do something else, then bring it back up to find your session exactly as you left it.
Think about your workflow. Maybe you’re writing code and you need to run a command. You either minimize the editor, open a terminal, run the command, and then get back to the code. Or you have multiple windows open, and you’re constantly jumping between them. Quake mode removes that friction entirely.
Combined with a Windows terminal that’s fast, colorful, and easy to use, Quake mode is a killer feature. It also makes accessing tools like my shockingly efficient text-based calendar a breeze.
Developers, system admins, and even power users who often run automation scripts will find this incredibly useful. Whether you need to kill a process, check system logs, or run a terminal tool, just press Windows Key + ` and you’re good to go.
The terminal window is always on top, so it never gets buried underneath other windows. You can resize it by dragging the bottom edge, and it enters focus mode automatically, which means the terminal is ready to go the moment it appears on your screen.
Improve your terminal experience
Set up Windows Terminal, get Quake mode free
There isn’t any setting up you need to do to get Quake mode running in the first place. However, it plays nicely with everything else in the Windows Terminal app. This means your default profile gets loaded automatically. If you have PowerShell as your default, that’s what you get. If you prefer the Command Prompt or WSL, Quake mode will respect that choice and give you the shell you want.
That said, as mentioned before, Quake mode needs the Windows Terminal to be running in the background before first launch. Launching Windows Terminal manually isn’t a big task, but if you’d rather have it running the moment Windows is done booting up, you can create a shortcut in the Windows startup folder to automate this.
Navigate to your Windows startup folder by running shell:startup in the Run dialog (accessible by pressing Windows Key + R). Once there, create a new shortcut with the following path:
wt.exe -w _quake
And that’s it. The Quake mode keyboard shortcut will now run even if you don’t have a Windows Terminal session open. You can also run this command in the Run dialog if you’d rather start Quake mode manually.
Quake Mode changes how you use the terminal
Faster commands, better multitasking, and zero friction—it’s a power user’s dream
Quake mode isn’t going to revolutionize your life or anything, but it removes a genuine pain point from your workflow. If you’re someone who regularly uses the Windows command line, you’ll immediately appreciate how much smoother things flow when you’re not constantly switching windows. That’s one of the reasons why I was using 4 monitors at one point.
The fact that this feature exists in Windows Terminal and remains relatively unknown is honestly a shame. It’s been around for years, works seamlessly, and is available to everyone using Windows.
So do yourself a favor, press Windows Key + ` right now. If Windows Terminal is running, you’ll see what I mean. If it isn’t, run it and experience Quake mode for yourself.