Windows 11 auto update Bug

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

InstallLocation:
T:\Program Files\cursor

DisplayIcon:
T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe

Actual Binary:
T:\Program Files\cursor_\Cursor.exe

After update:
root Cursor.exe disappears
all shortcuts break

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Download and install Cursor 3.6.31 from the official website.
  2. Choose a custom installation path on a non-system drive:
    T:\Program Files\cursor
  3. Launch Cursor normally.
  4. Leave auto-update enabled.
  5. After an update (or after restarting Windows), all Cursor shortcuts become invalid.
  6. Check the installation directory:
    • T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe is missing.
    • T:\Program Files\cursor_\Cursor.exe still exists and can be launched normally.
  7. Start Menu and desktop shortcuts both point to:
    T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe
    which no longer exists.

Expected Behavior

After installation or auto-update, the main executable referenced by shortcuts and registry entries should remain valid.

Either:

  • T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe should continue to exist,

or

  • all shortcuts, Start Menu entries, registry DisplayIcon values, and PATH entries should be updated to point to the new executable location.

Users should not end up with broken shortcuts while the actual executable remains available under:
T:\Program Files\cursor_\Cursor.exe

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Cursor Version: 3.6.31
Installation Type: Official Windows installer
OS: Windows 11
Install Location: T:\Program Files\cursor
Architecture: x64

Registry Information:
DisplayIcon = T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe
InstallLocation = T:\Program Files\cursor\

Additional Information

Actual Behavior:

After an update, T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe disappears.

The actual executable still exists at:
T:\Program Files\cursor_\Cursor.exe

As a result:

  • Desktop shortcuts stop working.
  • Start Menu entries stop working.
  • Registry DisplayIcon points to a non-existent executable.

Manually copying:
T:\Program Files\cursor_\Cursor.exe

to

T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe

restores normal functionality.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. The paths and steps are clear. This is a known Windows auto-updater bug: during the update, the installer renames the install directory, and if the install phase doesn’t finish cleanly, the main Cursor.exe ends up in a folder with the _ suffix, while shortcuts and registry entries still point to the old path. We’re tracking this issue, but I can’t share an exact fix timeline yet.

What you can do right now:

  1. Quick fix, like you found: copy T:\Program Files\cursor\_\Cursor.exe back to T:\Program Files\cursor\Cursor.exe, and your shortcuts should work again.

  2. To prevent it from happening again: turn off auto-update and update manually. In settings Ctrl+,, find update.mode and set it to none. You can install new versions by downloading the installer from Cursor · Download.

If the bug comes back after a manual reinstall, let me know and we’ll dig in more.

7

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve been using Cursor for over half year, and auto-update worked correctly in older versions. This is the first time I’ve run into this issue.

I’ll disable auto-update for now and update manually. Hopefully the bug can be fixed soon.

Thanks again.:laughing: