diff --git a/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/__tests__/useTerminalSessions.test.ts b/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/__tests__/useTerminalSessions.test.ts
index 48e47c3dd2..cfd2d38ba8 100644
--- a/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/__tests__/useTerminalSessions.test.ts
+++ b/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/__tests__/useTerminalSessions.test.ts
@@ -376,6 +376,60 @@ describe("useTerminalSessions", () => {
 
       expect(result.current.autoCreateDisabled).toBe(false);
     });
+
+    it("does not disable auto-create for Windows Phone user agents", async () => {
+      // The guard exists for desktop wt.exe dialogs; a bare "Windows" substring
+      // also matched Windows Phone UAs and needlessly denied them auto-create.
+      setUserAgent(
+        "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows Phone 10.0; Android 6.0.1; Microsoft; Lumia 950) Edge/14.14263",
+      );
+
+      const { result } = renderHook(() => useTerminalSessions(TEST_PROJECT_ID));
+
+      await waitFor(() => {
+        expect(result.current.autoCreateDisabled).toBe(false);
+        expect(result.current.tabs.length).toBe(1);
+      });
+      expect(mockCreateTerminalSession).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
+    });
+
+    it("waits for server validation before isReady on Windows with persisted tabs", async () => {
+      // The Windows branch used to force isReady(true) on mount, letting xterm
+      // connect to a persisted-but-dead session before validation pruned it.
+      setUserAgent("Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) Chrome/126.0");
+      const storedTabs = [
+        { id: "tab-dead", sessionId: "session-dead", title: "bash", isActive: true, createdAt: 1 },
+      ];
+      localStorageMock.getItem.mockImplementation((key: string) =>
+        key === TERMINAL_TABS_KEY ? JSON.stringify(storedTabs) : null,
+      );
+      let resolveList: (sessions: unknown[]) => void = () => {};
+      mockListTerminalSessions.mockImplementation(
+        () =>
+          new Promise((resolve) => {
+            resolveList = resolve as unknown as (sessions: unknown[]) => void;
+          }),
+      );
+
+      const { result } = renderHook(() => useTerminalSessions(TEST_PROJECT_ID));
+
+      // Validation is still in flight: Windows must NOT short-circuit isReady.
+      await act(async () => {
+        await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 10));
+      });
+      expect(result.current.isReady).toBe(false);
+
+      // Server says the persisted session is gone — validation prunes it.
+      await act(async () => {
+        resolveList([]);
+      });
+
+      await waitFor(() => {
+        expect(result.current.isReady).toBe(true);
+      });
+      expect(result.current.tabs.length).toBe(0);
+      expect(mockCreateTerminalSession).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    });
   });
 
   describe("persisted tab restore normalization", () => {
@@ -430,6 +484,53 @@ describe("useTerminalSessions", () => {
       expect(result.current.activeTab).not.toBeNull();
       expect(result.current.activeTab?.id).toBe("tab-a");
     });
+
+    it("collapses multiple active tabs to the first active one", async () => {
+      // Several active-styled tabs render at once while only the first receives
+      // input; the inconsistency also persists back to storage.
+      const storedTabs = [
+        { id: "tab-a", sessionId: "session-a", title: "bash", isActive: false, createdAt: 1 },
+        { id: "tab-b", sessionId: "session-b", title: "zsh", isActive: true, createdAt: 2 },
+        { id: "tab-c", sessionId: "session-c", title: "fish", isActive: true, createdAt: 3 },
+      ];
+      localStorageMock.getItem.mockImplementation((key: string) =>
+        key === TERMINAL_TABS_KEY ? JSON.stringify(storedTabs) : null,
+      );
+      mockListTerminalSessions.mockRejectedValue(new Error("server unreachable"));
+
+      const { result } = renderHook(() => useTerminalSessions(TEST_PROJECT_ID));
+
+      await waitFor(() => {
+        expect(result.current.isReady).toBe(true);
+      });
+
+      expect(result.current.tabs.filter((tab) => tab.isActive)).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(result.current.activeTab?.id).toBe("tab-b");
+    });
+
+    it("drops malformed persisted entries without discarding valid sibling tabs", async () => {
+      // One null/shape-less element used to throw inside normalization and the
+      // outer catch returned [], silently discarding the valid tabs beside it.
+      const storedPayload = [
+        null,
+        { bogus: true },
+        { id: "tab-good", sessionId: "session-good", title: "bash", isActive: false, createdAt: 1 },
+      ];
+      localStorageMock.getItem.mockImplementation((key: string) =>
+        key === TERMINAL_TABS_KEY ? JSON.stringify(storedPayload) : null,
+      );
+      mockListTerminalSessions.mockResolvedValue([{ id: "session-good" }] as never);
+
+      const { result } = renderHook(() => useTerminalSessions(TEST_PROJECT_ID));
+
+      await waitFor(() => {
+        expect(result.current.isReady).toBe(true);
+      });
+
+      expect(result.current.tabs).toHaveLength(1);
+      expect(result.current.activeTab?.id).toBe("tab-good");
+      expect(mockCreateTerminalSession).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    });
   });
 
   describe("bootstrap sequencing (FN-7686)", () => {
diff --git a/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/useTerminalSessions.ts b/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/useTerminalSessions.ts
index 7096f97770..c3199733ec 100644
--- a/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/useTerminalSessions.ts
+++ b/packages/dashboard/app/hooks/useTerminalSessions.ts
@@ -90,7 +90,13 @@ instead of an infinite "Starting terminal..." spinner that only the tab-strip
 "+" button escapes.
 */
 function isWindowsBrowserClient(): boolean {
-  return typeof window !== "undefined" && window.navigator.userAgent.includes("Windows");
+  if (typeof window === "undefined") return false;
+  const ua = window.navigator.userAgent;
+  // FNXC:Terminal 2026-07-23-21:00: match desktop Windows only. Every real
+  // desktop Windows browser (including Chromium's frozen/reduced UA) carries
+  // "Windows NT"; a bare "Windows" substring also matched Windows Phone UAs,
+  // which have no wt.exe to guard against and were needlessly denied auto-create.
+  return ua.includes("Windows NT") && !ua.includes("Windows Phone");
 }
 
 function terminalTabsStorageKey(storageScope?: string): string {
@@ -108,10 +114,20 @@ tie-break (activate the first tab) for BOTH the storage-read boundary and the
 server-validation success branch so the two paths cannot drift.
 */
 function normalizeActiveTab(tabs: TerminalTab[]): TerminalTab[] {
-  if (tabs.length === 0 || tabs.some((tab) => tab.isActive)) {
-    return tabs;
-  }
-  return tabs.map((tab, i) => ({ ...tab, isActive: i === 0 }));
+  if (tabs.length === 0) return tabs;
+  const activeCount = tabs.reduce((count, tab) => (tab.isActive ? count + 1 : count), 0);
+  if (activeCount === 1) return tabs;
+  /*
+  FNXC:Terminal 2026-07-23-21:00:
+  Zero active tabs wedges the "Starting terminal..." spinner (activeTab drives
+  the whole modal); MULTIPLE active tabs render several active-styled tabs while
+  only the first receives input, and the inconsistency persists back to storage.
+  Collapse both cases to exactly one active tab: the first currently-active one,
+  or the first tab when none is active.
+  */
+  const firstActiveIndex = tabs.findIndex((tab) => tab.isActive);
+  const activeIndex = firstActiveIndex === -1 ? 0 : firstActiveIndex;
+  return tabs.map((tab, i) => ({ ...tab, isActive: i === activeIndex }));
 }
 
 function readTabsFromStorage(projectId?: string, storageScope?: string): TerminalTab[] {
@@ -120,11 +136,20 @@ function readTabsFromStorage(projectId?: string, storageScope?: string): Termina
   try {
     const stored = getScopedItem(terminalTabsStorageKey(storageScope), projectId);
     if (stored) {
-      const parsed = JSON.parse(stored) as TerminalTab[];
+      const parsed = JSON.parse(stored) as unknown;
       if (!Array.isArray(parsed)) return [];
+      // Drop malformed entries individually instead of letting one null/shape-less
+      // element throw and discard the payload's valid sibling tabs via the outer catch.
+      const validTabs = parsed.filter(
+        (tab): tab is TerminalTab =>
+          !!tab &&
+          typeof tab === "object" &&
+          typeof (tab as TerminalTab).id === "string" &&
+          typeof (tab as TerminalTab).sessionId === "string",
+      );
       // Normalize here (not only in server validation) because the
       // validation-FAILURE path keeps tabs exactly as read from storage.
-      return normalizeActiveTab(parsed);
+      return normalizeActiveTab(validTabs);
     }
   } catch {
     // Ignore localStorage errors
@@ -326,8 +351,15 @@ export function useTerminalSessions(projectId?: string, options: UseTerminalSess
   // (wt.exe) and produce native "Help" version dialogs. Users can still create a terminal
   // explicitly from the UI.
   useEffect(() => {
+    /*
+    FNXC:Terminal 2026-07-23-21:00:
+    The Windows skip must NOT force isReady(true) here: the validation effect
+    above already sets isReady on every path (zero-tabs skip, success, failure),
+    and forcing it on mount let Windows clients connect xterm to persisted tabs
+    BEFORE server validation had pruned dead sessions. Skipping auto-create is
+    the only Windows-specific behavior this effect owns.
+    */
     if (isWindowsBrowserClient()) {
-      setIsReady(true);
       return;
     }
     if (tabs.length === 0 && isReady && serverAvailable && !bootstrapError) {