Root watcher EACCES/EPERM spam on Windows startup from WindowsApps and locked files

[tommygents]

Environment

• freshell v0.7.0 (git tag)
• Windows 11 Pro (native, not WSL)
• Node 22.12.0
• Fresh clone + npm install + npm run serve

Summary

On startup, freshell's root watcher enumerates executables in PATH directories. On Windows, PATH typically includes C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\, which contains UWP app execution aliases (NTFS reparse points). Node's fs.stat cannot access these without elevation, producing approximately 35 EACCES warnings per startup:

{"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"EACCES","path":"...\WindowsApps\1Password.exe"}}
{"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"EACCES","path":"...\WindowsApps\winget.exe"}}
{"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"EACCES","path":"...\WindowsApps\wsl.exe"}}
{"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"EACCES","path":"...\WindowsApps\notepad.exe"}}
{"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"EACCES","path":"...\WindowsApps\Spotify.exe"}}
... (~35 total)

Additionally:

• fnm (Fast Node Manager) creates temporary multishell directories in PATH that produce UNKNOWN errors:

  {"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"UNKNOWN","path":"...\fnm_multishells\24656_1234567890"}}

• Dropbox locked journal files produce EPERM errors:

  {"level":40,"msg":"Root watcher error","err":{"code":"EPERM","path":"...\Dropbox\instance1\config.dbx-journal"}}

The application still starts and functions correctly, but the console output is very noisy and could obscure real errors.

Steps to Reproduce

1. On a Windows 11 machine with typical software (1Password, Spotify, Teams, etc. installed from the Microsoft Store)
2. git clone --branch v0.7.0 https://github.com/danshapiro/freshell.git
3. cd freshell && npm install && npm run serve
4. Observe ~35+ warnings in console output

Suggested Fix

Filter out WindowsApps from the watcher's scan path, or wrap fs.stat calls with error handling that suppresses EACCES/EPERM/UNKNOWN on known Windows system directories. A denylist for AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps, fnm multishell temp dirs, and locked application journal files would cover the common cases.