Random powershell script running on startup

Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

When opening the cursor executable, 3 powershell windows will open, echo ‘test’, then close immediately.

Steps to Reproduce

Open Cursor

Expected Behavior

No powershell scripts will display and app will open normally

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.1.40 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: f5edf5b2fdaaf0f44d324fa092a32515ce114c90
Date: 2025-11-30T16:13:36.488Z
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 10.0.26100

Additional Information

The powershell script executed appears to be dumping environment variables

Set-Location 'C:\Users\Austin\AppData\Local\Programs\cursor'

# Execute user command
echo test
$COMMAND_EXIT_CODE = $LASTEXITCODE


function Dump-PowerShellState {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]
        [string]$OutputFile
    )

    function Emit {
        param([string]$Content)
        Add-Content -Path $OutputFile -Value $Content -Encoding UTF8
    }

    if (Test-Path $OutputFile) {
        Remove-Item $OutputFile -Force
    }
    New-Item -Path $OutputFile -ItemType File -Force | Out-Null
    #Log-Timing "file_init"

    Emit $PWD.Path
    #Log-Timing "working_dir"

    $envVars = Get-ChildItem Env: | Sort-Object Name
    foreach ($var in $envVars) {
        $encoded = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes([string]$var.Value))
        Emit ('Set-Item -LiteralPath ''Env:{0}'' -Value ([System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetString([System.Convert]::FromBase64String(''{1}'')))' -f $var.Name, $encoded)
    }
    #Log-Timing "environment"

    $aliases = Get-Alias | Sort-Object Name
    foreach ($alias in $aliases) {
        $definition = $alias.Definition

        if ($alias.Options -band [System.Management.Automation.ScopedItemOptions]::ReadOnly) {
        }
        elseif ($alias.Options -band [System.Management.Automation.ScopedItemOptions]::Constant) {
        }
        elseif ($alias.Options -band [System.Management.Automation.ScopedItemOptions]::AllScope) {
        }
        else {
            Emit ('Set-Alias -Name "{0}" -Value "{1}"' -f $alias.Name, $definition)
        }
    }

    #Log-Timing "finalize"
}

Dump-PowerShellState -OutputFile "C:\Users\Austin\AppData\Local\Temp\ps-state-out-a654489d-81f8-411b-b35d-83b7c5903cbb.txt"

exit $COMMAND_EXIT_CODE

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

2

Hey, thanks for the report. When launching Cursor, 3 PowerShell windows open, run echo ‘test’ and dump environment variables to a temp file, then close. Looks like a bug in shell initialization on Windows.

Can you please share:

  • result of running cursor --disable-extensions (does the issue reproduce)
  • screenshot from command palette → Developer: Open Process Explorer (powershell.exe processes and their Command Line) right after start
  • errors from Console (Help > Toggle Developer Tools > Console) on restart
  • confirmation of creation of file C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\ps-state-out-*.txt
  • result of test with “user setup” installation (download user version from Download · Cursor site, instead of “system setup”)

This will help localize the problem.

3

Hello,

I ended up solving this manually by editing the js bundle (not ideal but it fixed it) at C:\Program Files\cursor\resources\app\out\vs\workbench\workbench.desktop.main.js.

There was a hardcoded echo test in the bundle, not sure why. But removing that resolved the issue.