VHS freezes on Windows cmd

[SickleFire]

Describe the bug
VHS freezes and unresponsive. when I enter:

vhs demo.tape

I tried it on Powershell and CMD. see screenshot below.

Setup

• Windows 11
• CMD / PS

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. open cmd
2. vhs demo.tape

Source Code

demo.tape:

# Where should we write the GIF?
Output demo.gif

# Set up a 1200x600 terminal with 46px font.
Set FontSize 46
Set Width 1200
Set Height 600

# Type a command in the terminal.
Type "echo 'Welcome to VHS!'"

# Pause for dramatic effect...
Sleep 500ms

# Run the command by pressing enter.
Enter

# Admire the output for a bit.
Sleep 5s

Expected behavior
an output of demo.gif

Screenshots

Additional context
ffmpeg version 8.1.1-full_build-www.gyan.dev Copyright (c) 2000-2026 the FFmpeg developers
ttyd version 1.7.7-40e79c7
vhs version v0.11.0 (c6af91a)

it just freezes and unresponsive. still no output while writing this issue

I hope someone can help me. and point out what I did wrong.

[hossam-houssien]

I have the same issue , with vhs version v0.11.0, when I check the task manager found 6 chrome processes start running but with 0% cpu (hang) , at the same time about 6 processes for google updater run for few minutes and then stops, but the chrome process still there till I force kill it, the issue seems to be with chrome, but not sure.

[pcordon]

Same issue on native Windows 11 with:

• VHS v0.11.0
• ttyd 1.7.7-40e79c7
• PowerShell 7
• Google Chrome 150.0.7871.129

Minimal tape:

Require pwsh

Output smoke.gif

Set Shell "pwsh"
Set Width 800
Set Height 450
Set FontSize 24

Sleep 2s
Type "Write-Host 'VHS works' -ForegroundColor Green"
Enter
Sleep 3s

VHS prints the parsed tape configuration and then hangs indefinitely without producing smoke.gif.

I tested the components separately:

• ttyd serving PowerShell works and returns HTTP 200.
• The exact ttyd arguments used by VHS also work.
• Chrome headless works independently and exits successfully.
• Chrome can open the ttyd page and save a screenshot successfully.
• During the stuck VHS run, VHS successfully launches Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=0, but tape execution never begins.
• The same smoke tape works successfully through VHS inside WSL2.

Looks like an issue in VHS/go-rod initialization or browser control.

[andrinoff]

hey @SickleFire and everyone!

Can you,please, provide winver build number and the output of running ttyd -p 7654 --debug 7 cmd manually.

[SickleFire]

winver: 26200.9168
ttyd:

[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0753] N: ttyd 1.7.7-40e79c7 (libwebsockets 4.3.3-unknown)
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0773] N: tty configuration:
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0784] N:   start command: cmd
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0794] N:   close signal: SIGHUP (1)
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0814] N:   terminal type: xterm-256color
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0824] N: The --writable option is not set, will start in readonly mode
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0846] N: lws_create_context: LWS: 4.3.3-unknown, MbedTLS-2.28.5 NET SRV H1 H2 WS ConMon IPV6-off
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0902] N: elops_init_pt_uv:  Using foreign event loop...
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0925] N: __lws_lc_tag:  ++ [wsi|0|pipe] (1)
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0970] N: __lws_lc_tag:  ++ [vh|0|default||7654] (1)
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:0990] N: [vh|0|default||7654]: lws_socket_bind: source ads 0.0.0.0
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:1000] N: __lws_lc_tag:  ++ [wsi|1|listen|default||7654] (2)
[2026/08/13 23:16:09:1025] N:  Listening on port: 7654