Mendix Studio Pro freezes or becomes slow when switching between microflow and nanoflow tabs on Windows virtual machines after Edge WebView2 update

Issue

When using Mendix Studio Pro on a Windows virtual machine (VM) (for example, Windows 11 VM hosted on Azure), Studio Pro freezes or becomes temporarily unresponsive when switching between open microflow or nanoflow editor tabs. The issue occurs across multiple versions of Studio Pro. Pages in Structure mode are not affected, but pages opened in Design mode also exhibit the same slowness. The problem is not related to a specific app or model, as even a newly created blank app with several microflows reproduces the issue immediately. The issue does not occur on a local Windows laptop or on macOS with the latest Edge update installed.

The freezes are triggered when clicking on a tab to switch between open microflow or nanoflow documents, causing a re-render of the target document. Closing a tab instead of switching to it reverts to the previously open document without the freeze. Running Studio Pro as administrator resolves the slowness, suggesting an OS-level or security agent interaction is involved.

Environment

Studio Pro (all versions)

Cause

The issue is caused by a combination of factors specific to the affected setup: the introduction of Edge WebView2 runtime version 147.0.3912.60 (and later), which is used by Studio Pro to render web-based editor content such as microflow and nanoflow editors, combined with running Studio Pro inside a Windows virtual machine environment. Version 146.0.3856.109 of WebView2 does not exhibit this behavior. The exact change in WebView2 version 147 that causes this rendering freeze on virtual machines remains unknown. Contributing factors include GPU or graphics virtualization differences and OS-level process handling. Adding Studio Pro and WebView2 folders to the exclusion list in security scanning software does not resolve the issue.

Solution/Workaround

Attempt the following workarounds in order:

1. Downgrade Edge WebView2 to version 146.0.3856.109: Download the standalone WebView2 runtime version 146.0.3856.109 (for example, from NuGet Gallery | WebView2.Runtime.X64 146.0.3856.109). Set the environment variable WEBVIEW2_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE_FOLDER to the path of the extracted WebView2 files. Mendix Studio Pro uses this path at startup instead of the system-wide evergreen Edge installation.
2. Run Studio Pro as administrator: Right-click the Studio Pro executable and select Run as administrator. Note that the user account being a local admin is not sufficient; the process must be explicitly elevated.

Additional information

• Related KBA: Troubleshoot Studio Pro Performance issues
• Other documentation: NuGet Gallery | WebView2.Runtime.X64 146.0.3856.109