Updating Cursor While node.exe Is Running Causes Update Failure and Partial Uninstallation

Support Bug Reports
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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

When updating Cursor on Windows, if there are any node processes running in the background, the update cannot be completed successfully. The updater displays an error dialog with two options: Try Again or Cancel.

So far, I have only been able to reproduce this behavior on Windows. I have not tested it on other Unix-based operating systems (Linux/macOS).

Scenario 1 – Try Again

If Try Again is selected, the updater retries the installation but continues to fail as long as the node.exe processes remain running. The update cannot proceed until those processes are terminated manually.

Scenario 2 – Cancel

If Cancel is selected after the first update failure, Cursor becomes partially uninstalled. The application’s executable files are removed, while user data such as settings, extensions, plugins, and other customizations remain intact.

Downloading the latest version from the official website and reinstalling restores the application with all previous settings and customizations preserved.

Unfortunately, I was not able to record this scenario.

Steps to Reproduce

1 - Start one or more node processes in the background.
2 - Open Cursor and trigger an update to a newer version.
3 - Wait for the updater to begin replacing the application files.
4 - Observe that the update fails because the node.exe processes are still running.
5 - Choose one of the available options:
5.1 - Try Again: the update continues to fail until all node.exe processes are terminated.
5.2 - Cancel: Cursor becomes partially uninstalled, requiring a manual reinstallation.

Expected Behavior

The updater should automatically detect node processes that are preventing the update from replacing the application files.

As a best practice, instead of immediately terminating those processes, the updater could first display a prompt informing the user that background node processes are blocking the update and ask whether they would like to close them to continue.

If the user confirms, Cursor could automatically terminate the required processes and proceed with the update.

A possible implementation could use commands such as:

Windows (CMD or PowerShell)

taskkill /F /IM node.exe

Linux / macOS

killall -9 node

or

pkill node

This approach would eliminate the need for users to manually identify and terminate the blocking processes, resulting in a smoother update experience while also preventing repeated failures when selecting Try Again and avoiding the partial uninstallation scenario when selecting Cancel.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.12.10 (user setup)
VS Code Extension API: 1.128.0
Commit: 24a12dbd9cabf48956ce5bb3dbd234e41385b3d0
Date: 2026-07-16T03:15:48.538Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Additional Information

This problem has been occurring for a long time, regardless of the version.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

8

This is a known issue on our side that we’re working on. Running node.exe processes can lock the install folder during an update, which triggers the failure (and the partial uninstall if you hit Cancel partway through).

To recover: reinstall from Cursor · Download . Your settings and extensions are kept, so nothing is lost.

To avoid it going forward:

  1. Fully quit Cursor (including the tray icon) and close background node processes before updating.
  2. Or update using the installer from Cursor · Download , which prompts you to close conflicting processes first.
  3. To pause auto-updates: open Settings, search update.mode, and set it to none.

Let me know if it comes back after that!