The problem “Extension host terminated unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes” remain in 2.6.21

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I am experiencing a severe and persistent issue where the Extension Host crashes continuously immediately upon startup. The error message is: “Extension host terminated unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes.”

I have tried all standard and advanced troubleshooting steps to resolve this, but the bug persists:

Ran ‘Start Extension Bisect’: It instantly finished and disabled 0 extensions, proving it is not a third-party extension issue.
Cleared all caches: Deleted the %APPDATA%\Cursor and %USERPROFILE%.cursor folders completely.
Isolated VS Code configs: Temporarily renamed my global and local .vscode folders to avoid any cross-platform conflicts.
Clean Install: Uninstalled and reinstalled the latest version of Cursor from scratch.
Isolated the environment: Tested with a completely empty workspace/window to rule out project-specific loops or large files.
Network & Security: Temporarily disabled my Antivirus/Firewall and VPN to rule out internal background process blocking.
WSL Environment: I read on the forums that installing the WSL extension might resolve this. I installed it and tested, but the issue remains identical.
Despite a 100% clean install with no extensions and an empty workspace, the extension host crashes immediately, completely breaking the core AI features. How can I provide more specific logs to help you patch this?

Steps to Reproduce

just start cursor and the bug will appears 1 minute after

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.6.21 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: fea2f546c979a0a4ad1deab23552a43568807590
Date: 2026-03-21T22:09:10.098Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Auto

Additional Information

Impossible to use cursor since 2 weeks because of this bug, i’ve already sent a ticket for this bug, it was solved and it came back after 6 days mabe in the same version ? i’ ve tried to launch with “cursor --disable-extensions” and “cursor --profile-temp” the result is the same. i have also delete the app and re install it and the bug still here.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

3

Hey, I see this is a continuation of your previous thread The problem "Extension host terminated unexpectedly 3 times within the last 5 minutes" remain. Sadly, the cursor-socket fix from 2.6.18 didn’t fully make it into the latest builds, so there was a regression.

The root cause is the same: the out/ folder is missing inside cursor-socket. Please try the same workaround again like last time. Open Command Prompt as Administrator:

cd "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\cursor\resources\app\extensions\cursor-socket"
xcopy dist out\ /E /I

If your install path is C:\Program Files\cursor, use this instead:

cd "C:\Program Files\cursor\resources\app\extensions\cursor-socket"
xcopy dist out\ /E /I

Then restart Cursor.

If Extension Host still crashes after that, also try this:

  • Open Cursor Settings (not VS Code settings) > Indexing & Docs
  • Turn off Index Repositories for Instant Grep (BETA)
  • Restart Cursor

This combo helped other users on 2.6.21: Cursor Extension Host crashes repeatedly && cursor-socket extension is malformed - #11 by Thms.

Note: you’ll need to re-run xcopy after every Cursor update until this is fully fixed. The team knows about the regression, and your report helps with prioritization.

Let me know if it works this time.

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5

I can confirm I can finally work since yesterday thanks to Dean’s insights! :mechanical_arm:

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6

Turning off the index repositories for instant grep fixed the issue, thank you i can finally use my subscription to cursor. :flexed_biceps:

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