# Does anyone else experience instability with Cursor and WSL? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Tags:** performance, wsl, crashes\ **Created:** [January 16, 2026, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107 "2026-01-16T18:29:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alanosman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/alanosman/32/44138_2.png) [@alanosman](https://forum.cursor.com/u/alanosman)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2026, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/1 "2026-01-16T18:29:52Z")
I keep having this cycle of problems that seems to becoming more frequent. I start cursor, i have 4 repos I am working across all in the project. All is good for many queries, edits and a few hours and then all of a sudden Cursor gets laggy and crashes. I thought it might be the number or terminals I had open, but I eliminated that with no terminal use, it could be that one of the files I have open is a log file and I use the editor to view the log, and the log is getting cleared, maybe that it could be an undo buffer bug? I don’t know, but whatever it is, it is getting ANAF. ---
**Author:** ![Corn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Corn](https://forum.cursor.com/u/Corn)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/4 "2026-01-17T00:37:52Z")
I have had a similar situation. Compared to SSH, WSL doesn’t seem to be as stable. For example, yesterday I experienced repeated crashes that caused the plugins to keep reporting errors, and the issue was only resolved after I reinstalled Cursor. ---
**Author:** ![deanrie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/deanrie/32/1263_2.png) [@deanrie](https://forum.cursor.com/u/deanrie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 11:49am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/6 "2026-01-17T11:49:41Z")
Hey, thanks for the report. This looks like an extension host issue in WSL. Quick question: are you using the WSL extension for Cursor? In the bottom-left of the editor it should say `WSL: `. If it doesn’t, the problem is most likely that Cursor is running via Windows instead of the WSL environment. Fix: - Install the WSL extension in Cursor (from the Extensions marketplace) - Open a WSL terminal - `cd` into your project directory - Run `cursor .` from there The WSL extension lets Cursor run extensions directly inside WSL. It’s much faster and more stable, and it helps prevent extension host crashes. Here’s a thread where this helped another user with the same issue: [How to recover from "Extension host terminated unexpectedly 3 times..."?](https://forum.cursor.com/t/how-to-recover-from-extension-host-terminated-unexpectedly-3-times/148772) Let me know if this helps. ---
**Author:** ![alanosman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/alanosman/32/44138_2.png) [@alanosman](https://forum.cursor.com/u/alanosman)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/7 "2026-01-17T12:58:40Z")
Hi Dean, yes I am connecting exactly how you described. I already have WSL installed. Now that you mentioned it, I did remove it, and reinstall it to see if that will help. I do not open cursor from the WSL project folder as you describe. I normally open cursor from my Windows task bar and open WSL as a recent project. When I try the command you suggested I saw an access error and I didn’t bother to figure out why because opening from Windows seemed to work. I did try setting these folders to rwx but it didn’t correct it. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/a/3/a3e39978c17eb494f2460554a7d339338945a0a0.png) Alan ---
**Author:** ![deanrie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/deanrie/32/1263_2.png) [@deanrie](https://forum.cursor.com/u/deanrie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/11 "2026-01-17T16:55:38Z")
I can see a screenshot with an error on `/run/user/1000/`. This is a common `XDG_RUNTIME_DIR` issue in WSL. A few things to check: 1. Which WSL distro are you using, and is systemd enabled? Check in your WSL terminal: 2. Try creating the directory manually and setting the right permissions: 3. Then try running `cursor .` again from the WSL terminal. If that doesn’t help, please share the output of: - `wsl --version` - `cat /etc/wsl.conf` - `ls -la /run/user/` ---
**Author:** ![alanosman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/alanosman/32/44138_2.png) [@alanosman](https://forum.cursor.com/u/alanosman)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/12 "2026-01-18T01:37:03Z")
Hi Dean, Thanks for the steps. All of those made it work. So this launches cursor in an ubuntu shell thing, that personally I don’t like too much because it’s usability is worse. I suspect that this is the native ubuntu version. I cannot resize the vertical scroll panel widths and the window sizing with the double title bars is flakey. I prefer the native Windows version and connect from the bottom left. But thanks for the assist.. appreciate the alt advice. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/6/b/6bb0fc82af575ff9dce04668d0afa68f086177ab.png) ---
**Author:** ![ravirahman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/user_avatar/forum.cursor.com/ravirahman/32/20386_2.png) [@ravirahman](https://forum.cursor.com/u/ravirahman)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://forum.cursor.com/t/does-anyone-else-experience-instability-with-cursor-and-wsl/149107/14 "2026-01-19T16:56:55Z")
It is not necessary to install Cursor _inside_ the WSL environment; instead, I would recommend using the WSL extension within Cursor installed on the Windows side. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/c/f/cfcee93919773ae9a435348f20cd13f77aee680e.png) Then, select the Remote Explorer (if it is not visible, you might need to reload the window after installing the extension). ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/cursor1/original/3X/6/8/68474b7859e2fbf94a767d352d26c76c5663b0b6.png) From there, you can select your WSL distribution to open a new window inside that environment.