Cursor installer exe blocked from running from TEMP dir

[Andre_Las_Casas]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I can’t install Cursor on my Windows 11 work laptop. Whenever I try I get the message “Unable to execute file in the temporary directory. Setup aborted.” “Error 5: Access is denied.”

It seems to be a common issue with Cursor, but none of the steps I have found solved it. I have tried to disable Windows Security, I have tried to change the location of the TEMP folder to C:

I’m an admin on my machine and I have never faced any issues installing programs before, I can’t use what I’m paying for if I can’t even install it

Steps to Reproduce

Download cursor CursorUserSetup-x64-2.4.21.exe or CursorSetup-x64-2.4.21.exe and try to install it on a Win11 Business machine

Expected Behavior

Install should be successful

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

CursorSetup-x64-2.4.21.exe
CursorUserSetup-x64-2.4.21.exe

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[deanrie]

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue in enterprise Windows environments with security policies.

Try this workaround. Open PowerShell and run:

$ENV:TEMP = "C:\Temp"
$ENV:TMP = "C:\Temp"
.\CursorUserSetup-x64-2.4.21.exe

Note: the C:\Temp folder must exist and it must allow running exe files. Don’t use the C:\ drive root directly.

If that doesn’t help, try running the installer with “Run as Administrator”.

Let me know if either workaround worked.

[Andre_Las_Casas]

It didn’t work. I have tried the env workaround before, both with powershell and changing directly from the env config, but to no luck…

[deanrie]

Hey, I see you’ve already tried the standard workaround with ENV variables. This looks like strict security policies on a corporate Windows machine.

Try this approach:

• Install Cursor on another machine without security restrictions (your home PC or a coworker’s)
• Find the Cursor install folder (usually C:\Users\[YourUser]\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor)
• Zip the whole folder
• Copy the zip to your work machine
• Unzip it to C:\Users\[YourUser]\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor
• Run Cursor.exe

If that still doesn’t work, you may need to contact your IT team to add an exception, since security policies can block both install and launch.

Let me know if it helped.

[Andre_Las_Casas]

I ended up installing an older version, 2.3.41 and it worked. But now everytime it tries to update itself I end up having the same error. Anyway, at least now I can use it, but I hope this issue is permanently fixed on a later update