"bitcoin-qt.exe -testnet" - Bitcoin Test Network

Bitcoin Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟"bitcoin-qt.exe -testnet" - Bitcoin Test Network

This section describes the Bitcoin test network using the -testnet option.

If you want to play with the bitcoin-qt.exe GUI, you should start with the "-testnet" option, which runs the Bitnet Core peer server on the test network.

C:\>\local\bitcoin-0.15.1\bin\bitcoin-qt.exe -testnet

You should see the bitcoin-qt GUI window, labeled as "Bitcoin Core - Wallet [testnet]". If displays the blockchain synchronization status and a warning message.

Recent transactions may not yet be visible, and therefor your 
wallet's balance might be incorrect. This information will be 
corrected once your wallet has finished synchronizing with the 
bitcoin network, as detailed below.

Attempting to spend bitcoins that are affected by not-yet-displayed
transactions will not be accepted by the network.

Number of blocks left: 1012355
Last block time: Tue Jul 15 04:11:13 2014
Progress: 10.88%
Progress increase per hour 2.65%
Estimated time left until synched: 33 hours