@UNISTRAPHIOlivier

Describe the problem

On the first run of a fresh installation, Arduino IDE automatically installs the "Arduino AVR Boards Platform". The platform has a Windows post-install script, which uses Driver Package Installer (dpinst.exe) to install USB drivers for the platform's boards:

https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-avr/blob/master/post_install.bat

When used in a restricted Windows environment (standard user, no admin rights), dpinst.exe is repeatedly launched in the background — dozens of times — without any visible progress or error message. Each instance consumes increasing amounts of RAM until the computer becomes unresponsive or crashes.

The IDE never finishes initializing, and the only way to recover is to kill all dpinst.exe processes or reboot the machine.

This makes Arduino IDE unusable for non-admin users in managed environments such as schools or enterprises.

This issue prevents deploying Arduino IDE in educational and enterprise environments.

To reproduce

1. Use an administrator account to install Arduino IDE system-wide under C:\Program Files\Arduino IDE.
2. Log out of the administrator account and log in as a non-administrator user (standard domain account with GPO restrictions).
3. Launch Arduino IDE normally.

🐛 Multiple dpinst.exe processes appear in Task Manager and start consuming large amounts of memory. After several seconds or minutes, the system slows down or completely freezes.

Expected behavior

Problems encountered during post-install script execution are handled gracefully.

Arduino IDE version

2.3.6

Operating system

Windows

Operating system version

11 24h2

Additional context

Additional reports

• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/freeze-on-start-up-multiple-dpinst-amd64-processes/1327057/1
• https://forum.arduino.cc/t/freeze-on-start-up-multiple-dpinst-amd64-processes/1327057/4

Issue checklist

• I searched for previous reports in the issue tracker
• I verified the problem still occurs when using the latest nightly build
• My report contains all necessary details