Problem:
In an empty window, Activity Bar extension icons render normally.
After opening an SSH/WSL workspace, icons are normal at first, but during the second extension-host/workbench refresh they turn into square/missing-glyph boxes. The clickable areas still work and the extension views can still open.
Steps to Reproduce
Tried:
Default product/icon theme
Vertical Activity Bar
Reload Window
Disable GPU
Disable UI-related extensions, including background/theme extensions
Reinstall/reload extensions
Expected Behavior
Expected:
Activity Bar extension icons should remain visible after workspace/remote extension host refresh.
Screenshots / Screen Recordings
Operating System
Windows 10/11
Version Information
Version: Cursor 3.8.11
OS: Windows
Remote: SSH/WSL workspace
Additional Information
Relevant logs:
remote-containers activates on workspaceContains
onStartupFinished extensions activate again
repeated: “No bundle location found for extension anysphere…”
Hey there! Thanks for the detailed report and screenshot.
This is a known bug with Remote-SSH and WSL sessions: the scheme used to load extension resources isn’t marked as CORS-enabled, so Chromium blocks the icon SVGs and fonts and you get empty squares. The buttons still work because only the glyph fails to load. We can reproduce it, and a fix is already prepared and in the pipeline. I can’t share an exact ETA yet.
A temporary workaround is Developer: Reload Window (Ctrl+Shift+P then Developer: Reload Window). It usually brings the icons back, though on 3.8.11 it doesn’t always hold and reconnecting to the remote session can bring the boxes back.
To be clear: this regression started after Cursor 3.8.11. Previous versions did not have this issue on the same Windows machine, with the same extensions and the same SSH/WSL workspaces.
Also, Ctrl+Shift+P → Developer: Reload Window does NOT fix it. The icons may temporarily appear normal in an empty window, but after opening an SSH/WSL workspace and the Activity Bar / extension host refreshes again, the extension icons turn into square boxes / missing glyphs again. The clickable areas still work, so this looks like an Activity Bar icon rendering regression, not an extension activation failure.
This is extremely frustrating. It breaks daily usage of non-native extensions because the Activity Bar becomes visually unusable. Please do not treat this as a generic “reload window” or extension setup issue. It is a reproducible Windows regression introduced after 3.8.11 and still present in 3.8.22.
Update: I found a local patch that fixes this on my machine, which strongly suggests this is a Cursor-side scheme/CORS regression, not an extension issue.
The issue is still present in Cursor 3.8.22. It started after 3.8.11; older versions did not have this problem.
In the local Cursor installation, I patched the main process bundle and added vscode-remote-resource to registerSchemesAsPrivileged with corsEnabled: true:
After restarting Cursor, the Activity Bar icons for remote SSH/WSL workspaces render correctly again.
This matches the symptoms:
Empty local window: icons are fine
Open SSH/WSL workspace: icons become square boxes after the second refresh
Click areas still work, so extensions are activated correctly
Developer: Reload Window does not fix it
Local patching the scheme privileges does fix it
This is only a temporary workaround, and I hope the Cursor team can provide an official fix as soon as possible.
This is not a reasonable workaround for users, because it requires patching Cursor’s minified production bundle and the change is overwritten on every update. But it should be a useful lead for the Cursor team.
