3 Easy Ways to Open a Terminal Window on a Mac

CityEcho

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posted on 10 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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The Terminal provides Mac users a way to access and adjust settings of the operating system with text-based commands. This can be helpful when troubleshooting your computer or laptop. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to launch the Terminal app with and without keyboard shortcuts. This wikiHow will show you how to open a Terminal window on your Mac running macOS Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, or earlier.

Things You Should Know

To open the Terminal on Mac, open the Launchpad app. Type in "terminal" and click "Terminal".
Alternatively, open the Finder and click "Go" → "Utilities" → "Terminal".
You can also click the Spotlight icon in the top-right corner. Search "terminal" and click "Terminal".

Using Launchpad

Open the Launchpad. This looks like a square holding 9 colored tiles.

Type terminal in the search bar. If needed, click the search bar at the top first. Results will load as you type.

Click Terminal. The Terminal window will open. You can use the Terminal to open applications and troubleshoot your Mac.

Using Finder

Open the Finder. This looks like the blue and silver face icon.

Click Go in the menu bar. It's at the top of the screen. A drop-down menu will open.

Click Utilities. You can find this towards the bottom of the drop-down menu. Alternatively, you can press ⇧ Shift+⌘+U to quickly open the Utilities folder.

Scroll down and double-click Terminal. The Terminal window will open. For quick access to the Terminal in the future, you can add it to the Dock.

Using Spotlight

Click the Spotlight icon. It's the magnifying glass in the upper-right corner of the screen. Alternatively, you can press ⌘+space to quickly open Spotlight.