diff --git a/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md b/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
index 9281c51059087..959858fb50f89 100644
--- a/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
+++ b/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
  - [ ] closes #xxxx
  - [ ] tests added / passed
- - [ ] passes ``git diff upstream/master --name-only -- '*.py' | flake8 --diff``
+ - [ ] passes ``git diff upstream/master --name-only -- '*.py' | flake8 --diff`` (On Windows, ``git diff upstream/master -u -- "*.py" | flake8 --diff`` might work as an alternative.)
  - [ ] whatsnew entry
diff --git a/doc/source/contributing.rst b/doc/source/contributing.rst
index aacfe25b91564..67d3c2c515f6f 100644
--- a/doc/source/contributing.rst
+++ b/doc/source/contributing.rst
@@ -525,6 +525,11 @@ run this slightly modified command::
 
    git diff master --name-only -- '*.py' | grep 'pandas/' | xargs flake8
 
+Note that on Windows, `grep`, `xargs`, and other tools are likely unavailable.
+However, this has been shown to work on smaller commits::
+
+    git diff master -u -- "*.py" | flake8 --diff
+
 Backwards Compatibility
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~