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Thinking it might be being blocked by my corporate proxy in powershell but it seems to be able to access the file through the browser

It does sound like you're correct that it's something sitting in between probably explaining why you can't do that request. still we should probably not crash for this. if possible could you try `DEBUG=cypress:* npx cypress open` and share the output? A GH issue would be a good place to continue the discussion if you don't mind creating one.

In looking around I found an issue that matches and it already has PR with the fix: https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress/issues/22081

Thanks for your time on this Mark, yeah i found that myself. Misery loves company so i'm happy it's not just me😋