Launching Cursor also launches a WSL window

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Looks like this exact bug is back -

Steps to Reproduce

Launch Cursor (Windows)

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.1.46 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ab326d0767c02fb9847b342c43ea58275c4b1680
Date: 2025-12-02T03:59:29.283Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

3

Hey, thanks for the report, I’ll pass it to the team.

5

Is there any further update on this? The wsl popup is vert annoying.

7

Can you share a screencast / steps to reproduce?

8

Steps to reproduce:

  • Launch Cursor. A WSL window pops up along with it.
  • Close that WSL window.
  • Click Terminal → New Terminal. A new terminal panel opens, but along with that, WSL Window pops up as well.

Screenshot:

Screenshot (33)
Screenshot (33)3840×2086 127 KB

Troubleshooting Done:

  1. :white_check_mark: Verified Terminal: Select Default Profile is set to PowerShell 7

  2. :white_check_mark: Confirmed terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows is set to PowerShell 7

  3. :white_check_mark: Verified workspace settings (.vscode/) don’t exist

  4. :white_check_mark: Confirmed terminal.integrated.automationProfile.windows is empty

  5. :white_check_mark: No VSCode/Cursor extensions installed

  6. :white_check_mark: No WSL references found in any Cursor configuration files

  7. :white_check_mark: Git configuration clean (no WSL credential helpers or paths)

  8. :white_check_mark: No WSL-related Windows startup items or scheduled tasks

Current working theory: Cursor is probing for available shells/terminals during startup, which triggers WSL even though it’s not configured or selected.

About:

Version: 2.2.20 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: b3573281c4775bfc6bba466bf6563d3d498d1070
Date: 2025-12-12T06:29:26.017Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

10

Are you able to upgrade WSL? If so, does the popup go away?

11

Yep! I updated wsl with that command and now the wsl window popup with Cursor stopped. So, the issue can be considered “solved”, I guess.

But it still confuses me as to why was Cursor tapping WSL anyway?