Windows 11 CPU runs hot even after shutting down Cursor

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

On Windows 11, when Cursor writes code, the CPU goes from 55 degrees to 75 degrees which is totally normal. The problem is that after it finishes, the CPU stays hot, even after I close out of Cursor. I looked for processes in Task Manager and closed any process trees that seemed weird or heavy but it didn’t solve the problem. The only thing that gets the temperature back to 55 degrees is a full reboot. I checked other threads and there were some Mac instructions but I didn’t see anything useful for Windows. I went into Cursor Settings but didn’t see anything there either. I have zero extensions installed. Everything is plain vanilla. Help?

MSI x870e Tomahawk wifi motherboard, 192gb ram, 7950 AMD CPU, 5090 & 5060 GPUs

Steps to Reproduce

Open Cursor, have it create code with Sonnet 4.6. CPU should heat up for the process & fans spin. When it finishes, close Cursor. The high temp & fans persist.

Expected Behavior

high temperature & fans persist.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 3.0.9 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 93e276db8a03af947eafb2d10241e2de17806c20
Date: 2026-04-03T02:06:46.446Z
Layout: editor
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?

Sonnet 4.6

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue. Cursor can sometimes leave background processes running after you close it, like extension-host and Node.js helpers, and they can keep using CPU. The team is aware, but there’s no timeline yet.

To help us understand what’s happening on your side, could you check a couple of things:

  1. After closing Cursor, open Task Manager, go to the Details tab, sort by CPU, and see which processes are using CPU. Look for something like Cursor Helper, node.exe, or electron. A screenshot would really help.

  2. Before closing Cursor, try closing it with Alt+F4 instead of the X button. Sometimes that shuts down child processes more cleanly.

  3. As a temporary workaround, after closing Cursor, open Task Manager and manually end any Cursor or node.exe processes related to Cursor. That should stop the CPU usage without a full reboot.

You mentioned you have zero extensions. That’s useful info, so it’s likely not caused by third-party extensions.

Let me know which processes you see in Task Manager after closing Cursor.

7

(post deleted by author)

1 Like
8

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let me know if this helps.