diff --git a/hooks/session-start-profiler-platform.test.ts b/hooks/session-start-profiler-platform.test.ts
index 7521d16..f3469f1 100644
--- a/hooks/session-start-profiler-platform.test.ts
+++ b/hooks/session-start-profiler-platform.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
 import { describe, expect, test } from "bun:test";
-import { detectSessionStartPlatform } from "./src/session-start-profiler.mts";
+import {
+  buildWindowsShellCommand,
+  detectSessionStartPlatform,
+  getBinaryPathCandidates,
+} from "./src/session-start-profiler.mts";
 
 describe("session-start-profiler platform detection", () => {
   test("test_session_start_profiler_does_not_infer_cursor_from_cursor_project_dir_alone", () => {
@@ -26,3 +30,24 @@ describe("session-start-profiler platform detection", () => {
     ).toBe("claude-code");
   });
 });
+
+describe("session-start-profiler Windows CLI resolution", () => {
+  test("test_windows_prefers_pathext_launchers_over_extensionless_npm_shims", () => {
+    const candidates = getBinaryPathCandidates("vercel", "win32");
+    const uppercaseCandidates = candidates.map((candidate: string) => candidate.toUpperCase());
+
+    expect(uppercaseCandidates).toContain("VERCEL.CMD");
+    expect(candidates).not.toContain("vercel");
+    expect(candidates[0]).toMatch(/^vercel\./i);
+  });
+
+  test("test_windows_cmd_shims_are_quoted_for_the_command_shell", () => {
+    expect(
+      buildWindowsShellCommand(
+        "C:\\Users\\Adam\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\vercel.cmd",
+        ["--version"],
+        "win32",
+      ),
+    ).toBe('"C:\\Users\\Adam\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\vercel.cmd" "--version"');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/hooks/session-start-profiler.mjs b/hooks/session-start-profiler.mjs
index 6d71508..58141af 100644
--- a/hooks/session-start-profiler.mjs
+++ b/hooks/session-start-profiler.mjs
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import {
   readdirSync
 } from "fs";
 import { delimiter, join, resolve } from "path";
-import { execFileSync } from "child_process";
+import { execFileSync, execSync } from "child_process";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
 import {
   formatOutput,
@@ -200,12 +200,12 @@ var SPAWN_STDIO = "ignore pipe ignore".split(" ");
 var EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS = 3e3;
 var NUMERIC_VERSION_RE = /\d+(?:\.\d+)*/;
 var WINDOWS_EXECUTABLE_EXTENSIONS = (process.env.PATHEXT || ".EXE;.CMD;.BAT;.COM").split(";").filter(Boolean);
-function getBinaryPathCandidates(binaryName) {
-  if (process.platform !== "win32") {
+function getBinaryPathCandidates(binaryName, platform = process.platform) {
+  if (platform !== "win32") {
     return [binaryName];
   }
   const hasExecutableExtension = /\.[^./\\]+$/.test(binaryName);
-  const suffixes = hasExecutableExtension ? [""] : ["", ...WINDOWS_EXECUTABLE_EXTENSIONS];
+  const suffixes = hasExecutableExtension ? [""] : WINDOWS_EXECUTABLE_EXTENSIONS;
   return suffixes.map((suffix) => `${binaryName}${suffix}`);
 }
 function resolveBinaryFromPath(binaryName) {
@@ -234,6 +234,28 @@ function resolveBinaryFromPath(binaryName) {
   });
   return null;
 }
+function buildWindowsShellCommand(binaryPath, args, platform = process.platform) {
+  if (platform !== "win32" || !/\.(?:cmd|bat)$/i.test(binaryPath)) {
+    return null;
+  }
+  const quote = (value) => `"${value.replace(/"/g, '""')}"`;
+  return [quote(binaryPath), ...args.map(quote)].join(" ");
+}
+function execResolvedBinarySync(binaryPath, args) {
+  const windowsShellCommand = buildWindowsShellCommand(binaryPath, args);
+  const options = {
+    timeout: EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS,
+    encoding: "utf-8",
+    stdio: SPAWN_STDIO
+  };
+  if (windowsShellCommand) {
+    return execSync(windowsShellCommand, {
+      ...options,
+      shell: process.env.ComSpec || "cmd.exe"
+    }).trim();
+  }
+  return execFileSync(binaryPath, args, options).trim();
+}
 function parseVersionSegments(version) {
   const matchedVersion = version.match(NUMERIC_VERSION_RE)?.[0];
   if (!matchedVersion) {
@@ -264,11 +286,7 @@ function checkVercelCli() {
   }
   let currentVersion;
   try {
-    const raw = execFileSync(vercelBinary, VERCEL_VERSION_ARGS, {
-      timeout: EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS,
-      encoding: "utf-8",
-      stdio: SPAWN_STDIO
-    }).trim();
+    const raw = execResolvedBinarySync(vercelBinary, VERCEL_VERSION_ARGS);
     const lines = raw.split("\n").map((l) => l.trim()).filter(Boolean);
     currentVersion = lines[lines.length - 1];
   } catch (error) {
@@ -284,11 +302,7 @@ function checkVercelCli() {
   }
   let latestVersion;
   try {
-    const raw = execFileSync(npmBinary, NPM_VIEW_ARGS, {
-      timeout: EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS,
-      encoding: "utf-8",
-      stdio: SPAWN_STDIO
-    }).trim();
+    const raw = execResolvedBinarySync(npmBinary, NPM_VIEW_ARGS);
     latestVersion = raw;
   } catch (error) {
     logCaughtError(log, "session-start-profiler:npm-latest-version-check-failed", error, {
@@ -487,9 +501,11 @@ if (isSessionStartProfilerEntrypoint) {
 export {
   buildSessionStartProfilerEnvVars,
   buildSessionStartProfilerUserMessages,
+  buildWindowsShellCommand,
   checkGreenfield,
   detectSessionStartPlatform,
   formatSessionStartProfilerCursorOutput,
+  getBinaryPathCandidates,
   logBrokenSkillFrontmatterSummary,
   normalizeSessionStartSessionId,
   parseSessionStartInput,
diff --git a/hooks/src/session-start-profiler.mts b/hooks/src/session-start-profiler.mts
index 74b7a59..5c292db 100644
--- a/hooks/src/session-start-profiler.mts
+++ b/hooks/src/session-start-profiler.mts
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ import {
 } from "node:fs";
 import { homedir } from "node:os";
 import { delimiter, join, resolve } from "node:path";
-import { execFileSync } from "node:child_process";
+import { execFileSync, execSync } from "node:child_process";
 import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
 import {
   formatOutput,
@@ -330,13 +330,18 @@ const WINDOWS_EXECUTABLE_EXTENSIONS = (process.env.PATHEXT || ".EXE;.CMD;.BAT;.C
   .split(";")
   .filter(Boolean);
 
-function getBinaryPathCandidates(binaryName: string): string[] {
-  if (process.platform !== "win32") {
+export function getBinaryPathCandidates(
+  binaryName: string,
+  platform: NodeJS.Platform = process.platform,
+): string[] {
+  if (platform !== "win32") {
     return [binaryName];
   }
 
   const hasExecutableExtension = /\.[^./\\]+$/.test(binaryName);
-  const suffixes = hasExecutableExtension ? [""] : ["", ...WINDOWS_EXECUTABLE_EXTENSIONS];
+  // npm installs an extensionless POSIX shim beside PATHEXT launchers on
+  // Windows. Node's execFileSync cannot execute that shim or a .cmd directly.
+  const suffixes = hasExecutableExtension ? [""] : WINDOWS_EXECUTABLE_EXTENSIONS;
   return suffixes.map((suffix: string) => `${binaryName}${suffix}`);
 }
 
@@ -368,6 +373,37 @@ function resolveBinaryFromPath(binaryName: string): string | null {
   return null;
 }
 
+export function buildWindowsShellCommand(
+  binaryPath: string,
+  args: string[],
+  platform: NodeJS.Platform = process.platform,
+): string | null {
+  if (platform !== "win32" || !/\.(?:cmd|bat)$/i.test(binaryPath)) {
+    return null;
+  }
+
+  const quote = (value: string): string => `"${value.replace(/"/g, '""')}"`;
+  return [quote(binaryPath), ...args.map(quote)].join(" ");
+}
+
+function execResolvedBinarySync(binaryPath: string, args: string[]): string {
+  const windowsShellCommand = buildWindowsShellCommand(binaryPath, args);
+  const options = {
+    timeout: EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS,
+    encoding: "utf-8" as const,
+    stdio: SPAWN_STDIO,
+  };
+
+  if (windowsShellCommand) {
+    return execSync(windowsShellCommand, {
+      ...options,
+      shell: process.env.ComSpec || "cmd.exe",
+    }).trim();
+  }
+
+  return execFileSync(binaryPath, args, options).trim();
+}
+
 function parseVersionSegments(version: string): number[] | null {
   const matchedVersion = version.match(NUMERIC_VERSION_RE)?.[0];
   if (!matchedVersion) {
@@ -413,11 +449,7 @@ function checkVercelCli(): VercelCliStatus {
   // 1. Check if vercel is installed
   let currentVersion: string | undefined;
   try {
-    const raw: string = execFileSync(vercelBinary, VERCEL_VERSION_ARGS, {
-      timeout: EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS,
-      encoding: "utf-8",
-      stdio: SPAWN_STDIO,
-    }).trim();
+    const raw: string = execResolvedBinarySync(vercelBinary, VERCEL_VERSION_ARGS);
     // Output may include extra lines; version is typically last non-empty line
     const lines: string[] = raw.split("\n").map((l: string) => l.trim()).filter(Boolean);
     currentVersion = lines[lines.length - 1];
@@ -437,11 +469,7 @@ function checkVercelCli(): VercelCliStatus {
   // 2. Fetch latest version from npm registry
   let latestVersion: string | undefined;
   try {
-    const raw: string = execFileSync(npmBinary, NPM_VIEW_ARGS, {
-      timeout: EXEC_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS,
-      encoding: "utf-8",
-      stdio: SPAWN_STDIO,
-    }).trim();
+    const raw: string = execResolvedBinarySync(npmBinary, NPM_VIEW_ARGS);
     latestVersion = raw;
   } catch (error) {
     logCaughtError(log, "session-start-profiler:npm-latest-version-check-failed", error, {