diff --git a/R/pkg/R/utils.R b/R/pkg/R/utils.R
index 74b3e502eb7c..1f7848f2b413 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/utils.R
@@ -756,12 +756,17 @@ varargsToJProperties <- function(...) {
   props
 }
 
-launchScript <- function(script, combinedArgs, capture = FALSE) {
+launchScript <- function(script, combinedArgs, wait = FALSE) {
   if (.Platform$OS.type == "windows") {
     scriptWithArgs <- paste(script, combinedArgs, sep = " ")
-    shell(scriptWithArgs, translate = TRUE, wait = capture, intern = capture) # nolint
+    # on Windows, intern = F seems to mean output to the console. (documentation on this is missing)
+    shell(scriptWithArgs, translate = TRUE, wait = wait, intern = wait) # nolint
   } else {
-    system2(script, combinedArgs, wait = capture, stdout = capture)
+    # http://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/base/html/system2.html
+    # stdout = F means discard output
+    # stdout = "" means to its console (default)
+    # Note that the console of this child process might not be the same as the running R process.
+    system2(script, combinedArgs, stdout = "", wait = wait)
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_Windows.R b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_Windows.R
index 8813e18a1fa4..e8d983426a67 100644
--- a/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_Windows.R
+++ b/R/pkg/inst/tests/testthat/test_Windows.R
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ test_that("sparkJars tag in SparkContext", {
   if (.Platform$OS.type != "windows") {
     skip("This test is only for Windows, skipped")
   }
-  testOutput <- launchScript("ECHO", "a/b/c", capture = TRUE)
+  testOutput <- launchScript("ECHO", "a/b/c", wait = TRUE)
   abcPath <- testOutput[1]
   expect_equal(abcPath, "a\\b\\c")
 })