Regression: v3.3.1 performance & stability degradation compared to v3.3.0 on Windows

[amirsh9]

Description

After upgrading from v3.3.0 to v3.3.1, I noticed significant performance and stability regressions:

• Sluggish/unresponsive behavior — the app becomes slow and sometimes hangs
• Frequent need to restart — have to reopen/close the app multiple times to get it working
• Overall instability — the app feels unreliable compared to v3.3.0

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install v3.3.1 on Windows (x64)
2. Use the app normally for a period of time
3. Observe gradual performance degradation
4. Notice the app becomes unresponsive and requires restarts

Expected Behavior

Performance and stability should be equal to or better than v3.3.0.

Actual Behavior

v3.3.1 is noticeably slower and less stable than v3.3.0.

Environment

• OS: Windows 10/11 (x64)
• Version: v3.3.1 (regression from v3.3.0)

Note

v3.3.0 was working fine. The issues appeared immediately after upgrading to v3.3.1. Downgrading back to v3.3.0 resolved all issues.

This seems to be a regression introduced in v3.3.1. Please investigate what changed between these two versions that could cause this behavior.

[github-actions]

Thank you for the detailed report, @amirsh9. I'm sorry to hear that v3.3.1 introduced a regression on Windows. Let me investigate what we know from the codebase and suggest next steps.

Relevant code areas:

• src/main/sandbox/ - WSL2 sandbox isolation layer (potential performance impact if WSL2 startup or resource usage changed).
• src/main/session/ - Session CRUD, chat history (some updates could cause memory leaks or sluggish behavior).
• src/main/config/config-store.ts - API key and preset management (unlikely but possible).

Observations from the repository:

• The ROADMAP.md (v3.3.0 section) mentions a focus on stability, and the CHANGELOG snippets suggest v3.3.1 included changes like MCP preferring system npx (fix(mcp): prefer system npx on Windows #120) and build verification updates. Without the full diff, I can't pinpoint the exact cause.
• The issue appears isolated to Windows. Since Open Cowork uses WSL2 for VM‑level isolation on Windows, a change in sandbox initialization or resource management could degrade performance.
• No other reports of similar regressions are currently visible, but this is likely a targeted environment issue.

To help us identify the problem, could you provide:

1. Exact Windows version (Win 10 22H2, Win 11 23H2, etc.) and system specs (RAM, CPU, disk type).
2. Whether WSL2 is installed and which distro is configured (Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, etc.).
3. Any error logs from the app – you can access them via Help > Show Logs or check %APPDATA%/open-cowork/logs/. Look for errors or warnings around the time performance degraded.
4. Steps before the slowdown – e.g., heavy file operations, multiple chat sessions, or long‑running tasks.

Temporary workaround:

• Downgrading to v3.3.0 resolves the issue, as you noted. You can download the older installer from the Releases page.
• If you're comfortable, you could try disabling the VM sandbox (set sandbox.enabled: false in config) to see if performance improves – though that reduces isolation.

We'll investigate the changes between v3.3.0 and v3.3.1 and aim to fix this in v3.3.2. Thank you for reporting!

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Open Cowork Bot