Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?
Cursor IDE
Describe the Bug
I’m a paying Pro customer and I’ve spent over 2 hours trying to simply customize my editor theme (yellow color for export keywords + italic fonts).
Settings.json is constantly locked. Every attempt to save shows:
Failed to save ‘settings.json’: Unable to write file (NoPermissions, FileSystemError):
Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, rename ‘settings.json.vsctmp’ → ‘settings.json’
What I’ve tried (nothing worked):
Running takeown and icacls to fix permissions
Disabling ALL extensions
Using --disable-extensions flag
Renaming extensions folder completely
Killing all Cursor and Node processes
Editing settings.json externally with Notepad while Cursor is closed
Complete uninstall and reinstall
Clearing all cache and AppData folders
Findings:
Process Monitor shows Cursor.exe constantly writing to settings.json
Even after taskkill /f /im cursor.exe, the file remains locked
Handle.exe sometimes shows PowerShell locking it, sometimes nothing
The file is NOT set to read-only
Environment:
Windows 10/11
Cursor Pro subscription
Fresh install
This is a basic functionality. I’m paying for this product and I cannot even change font styles. Please help URGENTLY!
Steps to Reproduce
I’m a paying Pro customer and I’ve spent over 2 hours trying to simply customize my editor theme (yellow color for export keywords + italic fonts).
Settings.json is constantly locked. Every attempt to save shows:
Failed to save ‘settings.json’: Unable to write file (NoPermissions, FileSystemError):
Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, rename ‘settings.json.vsctmp’ → ‘settings.json’
What I’ve tried (nothing worked):
Running takeown and icacls to fix permissions
Disabling ALL extensions
Using --disable-extensions flag
Renaming extensions folder completely
Killing all Cursor and Node processes
Editing settings.json externally with Notepad while Cursor is closed
Complete uninstall and reinstall
Clearing all cache and AppData folders
Findings:
Process Monitor shows Cursor.exe constantly writing to settings.json
Even after taskkill /f /im cursor.exe, the file remains locked
Handle.exe sometimes shows PowerShell locking it, sometimes nothing
The file is NOT set to read-only
Environment:
Windows 10/11
Cursor Pro subscription
Fresh install
This is a basic functionality. I’m paying for this product and I cannot even change font styles. Please help URGENT!
Operating System
Windows 10/11
Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
Version: 1.2.1 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 031e7e0ff1e2eda9c1a0f5df67d44053b059c5d0
Date: 2025-07-03T06:16:02.610Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200
Does this stop you from using Cursor
No - Cursor works, but with this issue