diff --git a/crates/oak-app/src/main.rs b/crates/oak-app/src/main.rs
index 5f6b5199d..92a569122 100644
--- a/crates/oak-app/src/main.rs
+++ b/crates/oak-app/src/main.rs
@@ -16,6 +16,12 @@
 
 //! The `oakapp` binary: opens the Oak main window (see [`oakapp::app`]).
 
+// Windows release builds are GUI applications: without the subsystem
+// attribute the linker marks the executable as a console program and
+// launching Oak opens a console window. Debug builds keep the console
+// (`cargo run` shows logs). The attribute is ignored elsewhere.
+#![cfg_attr(not(debug_assertions), windows_subsystem = "windows")]
+
 fn main() {
 	oakapp::run();
 }
diff --git a/crates/oak-core/src/miscutils.rs b/crates/oak-core/src/miscutils.rs
index 283018158..1b7f02e85 100644
--- a/crates/oak-core/src/miscutils.rs
+++ b/crates/oak-core/src/miscutils.rs
@@ -316,6 +316,25 @@ impl Current {
 	}
 }
 
+/// Hide the console window a child process would otherwise create on
+/// Windows: a GUI binary (the release `oak-editor.exe`) spawning a
+/// console-subsystem child — `oak-worker`, the OFX host, `ffmpeg` —
+/// flashes a console window even when every stream is piped. No-op on
+/// other platforms.
+pub fn hide_console_window(command: &mut std::process::Command) {
+	#[cfg(windows)]
+	{
+		use std::os::windows::process::CommandExt;
+		/// `CREATE_NO_WINDOW` (winbase.h).
+		const CREATE_NO_WINDOW: u32 = 0x0800_0000;
+		command.creation_flags(CREATE_NO_WINDOW);
+	}
+	#[cfg(not(windows))]
+	{
+		let _ = command;
+	}
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
 	use std::ffi::c_void;
diff --git a/crates/oak-render/src/ofxhost.rs b/crates/oak-render/src/ofxhost.rs
index 83a5584e5..191e2ce49 100644
--- a/crates/oak-render/src/ofxhost.rs
+++ b/crates/oak-render/src/ofxhost.rs
@@ -466,6 +466,8 @@ impl OfxHost {
 		for (key, value) in &config.env {
 			command.env(key, value);
 		}
+		// A GUI Oak spawning a console child would flash a console window.
+		oak_core::miscutils::hide_console_window(&mut command);
 		let mut child = command
 			.spawn()
 			.map_err(|e| Error::Failed(format!("spawn OFX host {}: {e}", bin.display())))?;
diff --git a/crates/oak-render/src/procpool.rs b/crates/oak-render/src/procpool.rs
index 9332c797d..6009390b6 100644
--- a/crates/oak-render/src/procpool.rs
+++ b/crates/oak-render/src/procpool.rs
@@ -1950,14 +1950,18 @@ impl ProcessDispatcher {
 		);
 		let shm = ShmRegionView::create(&key, inner.slots, inner.slot_bytes)?;
 
-		let mut child = Command::new(&inner.bin)
+		let mut command = Command::new(&inner.bin);
+		command
 			// Auto backend: prefer the GPU, fall back to the CPU renderer
 			// (M16 S1 — the worker tolerates a GPU init failure and keeps
 			// evaluating headless).
 			.args(["--backend", "auto"])
 			.stdin(Stdio::piped())
 			.stdout(Stdio::piped())
-			.stderr(Stdio::inherit())
+			.stderr(Stdio::inherit());
+		// A GUI Oak spawning a console child would flash a console window.
+		oak_core::miscutils::hide_console_window(&mut command);
+		let mut child = command
 			.spawn()
 			.map_err(|e| Error::Failed(format!("spawn oak-worker: {e}")))?;
 		let stdin = child.stdin.take();
diff --git a/crates/oak-task/src/proxy.rs b/crates/oak-task/src/proxy.rs
index 79c259984..b5597bbad 100644
--- a/crates/oak-task/src/proxy.rs
+++ b/crates/oak-task/src/proxy.rs
@@ -213,9 +213,10 @@ impl ProxyTask {
 	}
 
 	fn probe_hw_encoder_uncached(ffmpeg_path: &str) -> HwEncoder {
-		let out = Command::new(ffmpeg_path)
-			.args(["-hide_banner", "-encoders"])
-			.output();
+		let mut command = Command::new(ffmpeg_path);
+		command.args(["-hide_banner", "-encoders"]);
+		oak_core::miscutils::hide_console_window(&mut command);
+		let out = command.output();
 		let Ok(out) = out else {
 			return HwEncoder::Software;
 		};
@@ -251,24 +252,25 @@ impl ProxyTask {
 	/// Whether `encoder` can initialize and encode one tiny frame; see the
 	/// caller for why the `-encoders` list is not enough.
 	fn encoder_usable(ffmpeg_path: &str, encoder: &str) -> bool {
-		let out = Command::new(ffmpeg_path)
-			.args([
-				"-hide_banner",
-				"-loglevel",
-				"error",
-				"-f",
-				"lavfi",
-				"-i",
-				"color=size=64x64:rate=1:duration=1",
-				"-frames:v",
-				"1",
-				"-c:v",
-				encoder,
-				"-f",
-				"null",
-				"-",
-			])
-			.output();
+		let mut command = Command::new(ffmpeg_path);
+		command.args([
+			"-hide_banner",
+			"-loglevel",
+			"error",
+			"-f",
+			"lavfi",
+			"-i",
+			"color=size=64x64:rate=1:duration=1",
+			"-frames:v",
+			"1",
+			"-c:v",
+			encoder,
+			"-f",
+			"null",
+			"-",
+		]);
+		oak_core::miscutils::hide_console_window(&mut command);
+		let out = command.output();
 		matches!(out, Ok(out) if out.status.success())
 	}
 
@@ -508,6 +510,8 @@ impl TaskBehavior for ProxyTask {
 			.args(&args)
 			.stdout(Stdio::piped())
 			.stderr(Stdio::piped());
+		// A GUI Oak spawning a console child would flash a console window.
+		oak_core::miscutils::hide_console_window(&mut command);
 		let mut child = match command.spawn() {
 			Ok(child) => child,
 			Err(_) => {
@@ -601,17 +605,18 @@ fn probe_source_duration_seconds(ffmpeg_path: &str, source_filename: &str) -> f6
 	if !ffprobe.exists() {
 		return 0.0;
 	}
-	let output = Command::new(&ffprobe)
-		.args([
-			"-v",
-			"error",
-			"-show_entries",
-			"format=duration",
-			"-of",
-			"default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1",
-			source_filename,
-		])
-		.output();
+	let mut command = Command::new(&ffprobe);
+	command.args([
+		"-v",
+		"error",
+		"-show_entries",
+		"format=duration",
+		"-of",
+		"default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1",
+		source_filename,
+	]);
+	oak_core::miscutils::hide_console_window(&mut command);
+	let output = command.output();
 	match output {
 		Ok(out) if out.status.success() => {
 			let text = String::from_utf8_lossy(&out.stdout);