Black screen on launch (Windows 11)

[youyougaga789]

Hello,

I installed Kudu from the official website (usekudu.com) on a Windows 11 machine. The installation process completed successfully, but when I launch the application, a window appears that remains completely black and does not load any interface.

Steps to reproduce:

Install Kudu from the official website
Launch the application
A window opens but stays entirely black

Expected behavior:
The application UI should load normally.

Actual behavior:
The application window remains black and unusable.

Environment:

OS: Windows 11
Installation source: usekudu.com
(Add version of Kudu if you know it)

Please let me know if you need additional logs or information to help diagnose the issue.

Thank you for your work on this project.

[dbfx]

@
Thanks for the report — I havent been able to repro on my own Win11 box, so Ill need a bit more info to track this down.

The black rectangle is the windows background color showing through; the renderer (the actual UI) isnt loading. The frame is custom/borderless so when the renderer fails theres no title bar to interact with — matches what youre describing.

A few things that would help me narrow this down:

1. Version — what does the installer file say (e.g. Kudu-Setup-1.39.0.exe)? Or check the folder name under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\kudu.
2. Launch from PowerShell so any errors print to the console:

   & "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\kudu\Kudu.exe"

   Paste anything that shows up.
3. Windows Event Viewer → Windows Logs → Application. Around the time you launched, are there any entries from Application Error, .NET Runtime, or anything mentioning Kudu.exe / electron.exe?
4. Try with GPU disabled. Right-click the Kudu shortcut → Properties → append --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer to the Target field → Apply → relaunch. Does the UI appear?
5. Antivirus / Defender — check quarantine for anything from the install folder. A removed/blocked app.asar would produce exactly this symptom.
6. GPU cache reset — quit Kudu, delete %APPDATA%\Kudu\GPUCache and %APPDATA%\Kudu\Cache, relaunch.
7. DPI scaling — right-click Kudu.exe → Properties → Compatibility → Change high DPI settings → tick Override high DPI scaling behavior → Application. Relaunch.

If #4 brings the UI back, its a GPU/compositor edge case and I can ship a workaround. If #5 finds something quarantined, its a signing/AV reputation issue Ill need to address. Otherwise, anything from #2 or #3 will give me a thread to pull on.
@

[youyougaga789]

On my Windows 11 machine, launching Kudu (v1.40.0) always shows an empty black window. The UI never loads, and the window is borderless so there’s no title bar. The attached PowerShell output shows an error about a disposed render frame.

Checking for update
Update for version 1.40.0 is not available (latest version: 1.40.0, downgrade is disallowed).
Error sending from webFrameMain: Error: Render frame was disposed before WebFrameMain could be accessed
at s.send (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:104081)
at b.send (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:88255)
at broadcast (C:\Users\youyou\AppData\Local\Programs\kudu\resources\app.asar\out\main\index.js:25169:23)
at NsisUpdater. (C:\Users\youyou\AppData\Local\Programs\kudu\resources\app.asar\out\main\index.js:25190:5)
at NsisUpdater.emit (node:events:509:28)
at NsisUpdater.doCheckForUpdates (C:\Users\youyou\AppData\Local\Programs\kudu\resources\app.asar\node_modules\electron-updater\out\AppUpdater.js:406:18)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)

Troubleshooting steps already tried:

Launch from PowerShell: ran & "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\kudu\Kudu.exe" and got the above output; the window remained black.
GPU disabled (shortcut): added --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer to the Kudu shortcut target. The app still showed a black window.
Cleared GPU/renderer cache: deleted %APPDATA%\Kudu\GPUCache and %APPDATA%\Kudu\Cache; no change.
High DPI scaling override: set Kudu.exe compatibility to “Override high DPI scaling behavior” to Application; still no UI.
Antivirus/Defender: checked quarantine and logs – nothing was flagged or removed from the Kudu folder.