Broken ENV Variable 'steam_master_ipc_name_override' breaking VS Code (antigravity) and Chromium Problems

[magalz]

After instaling DUO, two things happened. I don't know if they are connected but here it is.

First, installing duo broke all chromium-based browsers:

• In OperaGX: All pages were broken, even the settings ones).
• In Vivaldi: The applications silently crashed.

Upon researching, i discovered that this may be linked to 1) a lock on the SQlite on the session as multiple users may be using the same session, but all workarounds to fix this failed. What resolved was running the browser with the --no-sandbox args. Also, it's worth mentioning that Chrome and Edge worked without visible bugs.

Secondly, VS Code (Antigravity too) start presenting problems. When opening the application in non-administrator mode, the window just silently crashes. When opening in administrator mode, I was able to capture this error:

2026-03-05 11:15:29.145 [error] JSON Language Server client: couldn't create connection to server. TypeError: The property 'options.env['steam_master_ipc_name_override']' must be a string without null bytes. Received 'Console\x00' at validateArgumentNullCheck (node:child_process:1013:11) at normalizeSpawnArguments (node:child_process:740:7) at spawn (node:child_process:794:13) at fork (node:child_process:174:10) at e.fork (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:19269) at i (c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:596643) at new Promise (<anonymous>) at c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:596219 at async T.createConnection (c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:57076) at async T.start (c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:47326) at async _ (c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:585134) at async t.startClient (c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:579019) at async t.activate (c:\Users\magal\AppData\Local\Programs\Antigravity\resources\app\extensions\json-language-features\client\dist\node\jsonClientMain.js:2:87372) at async jp.n (file:///c:/Users/magal/AppData/Local/Programs/Antigravity/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:117:14144) at async jp.m (file:///c:/Users/magal/AppData/Local/Programs/Antigravity/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:117:14107) at async jp.l (file:///c:/Users/magal/AppData/Local/Programs/Antigravity/resources/app/out/vs/workbench/api/node/extensionHostProcess.js:117:13563)

Executing in Adminstrator mode opens the application but it doesn't work properly. Also worth mentioning that VS Code and Antigravity are Chromium-based.

I'm running a brand new windows installation where I reproduced those errors. I Installed Duo on my machine and after all this problems I formated and tried again. Runned on the old system, the new system without Duo (where everything worked) and then installed Duo, where I could reproduce the errors.

I'm available if you want access to reproduce them on my machine.

In time, great work on this application! I use my desktop with a friend that uses Adobe Premiere heavily and don't have a machine that handle that, so you are a godsent.

Attached are my system specs.
sys-specs.txt

[magalz]

Update: Disabling "Isolate Steam" made all the apps work. Browser still broken but working with --no-sandbox args. For now everything is good.

I don't need multiple steam instances since i'm the only one playing, my friend is working, so for me its ok, but if anyone else encounter the same issue and want to have 2 separate steam sessions, then they have a problem.

[HetZieltje]

Holy **** so this is why Brave and VS Code have just completely stopped working, i've been absolutely pulling my hair out

[ersan]

Holy **** so this is why Brave and VS Code have just completely stopped working, i've been absolutely pulling my hair out

Same, I thought it was an issue with Brave itself. I had to go back to Edge for awhile.

You can also just add Brave to the app exceptions if you don't want to disable Steam isolation.

[GPR-ZRH]

This also breaks Unity Hub License Activation and Editor Installations just in case someone is searching for it.

"An unknown error occurred while installing \"C:\\Users\\*****\\AppData\\Roaming\\UnityHub\\downloads\\UnitySetup64-6000.3.11f1.exe\" TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_VALUE]: The property 'options.env['steam_master_ipc_name_override']' must be a string without null bytes. Received 'Console\\x00'\n at validateArgumentNullCheck (node:child_process:1013:11)

So just disabling "Isolate Steam" in Duo Manager is enough for Unity to work again.

[longebane]

this is kind of concerning that it could have such far-reaching consequences. what exactly does isolate steam do anyway, and why does disabling it help things working again. I was ripping my hair out trying to resolve this, from searching all through my files/registry/env variables for steam_master_ipc_name_override and where Console\\x00'\n was coming from

[mcfalld]

Holy **** so this is why Brave and VS Code have just completely stopped working, i've been absolutely pulling my hair out

Same, I thought it was an issue with Brave itself. I had to go back to Edge for awhile.

You can also just add Brave to the app exceptions if you don't want to disable Steam isolation.

Should Brave be blacklisted or whitelisted?

[Black-Seraph]

Fixed as of 1.5.7.