diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/main.ts b/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
index 4d7d5fc3..85cb1c60 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/main.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
  * code signing, blocked by Squirrel.Mac), multi-window, native menus.
  */
 
-import { app, BrowserWindow, dialog, shell } from 'electron'
+import { app, BrowserWindow, dialog, shell, Menu } from 'electron'
 import { spawn, spawnSync, type ChildProcess } from 'node:child_process'
 import { mkdir, readFile, watch } from 'node:fs/promises'
 import { fileURLToPath } from 'node:url'
@@ -285,6 +285,17 @@ app.whenReady().then(async () => {
   // + respawn UTA without restarting Alice (mirrors prod.mjs). ────────────
   void startFlagWatcher(homeEnv.OPENALICE_HOME, utaUrl, spawnUTA)
 
+  // No in-window menu bar on Windows/Linux — Electron's default
+  // File/Edit/View/Window/Help renders *inside* the window there and is
+  // meaningless for a single-window web-UI app (it never shows on macOS,
+  // where menus live in the system bar). macOS keeps a minimal menu so the
+  // app menu + copy/paste/select-all accelerators still work.
+  Menu.setApplicationMenu(
+    process.platform === 'darwin'
+      ? Menu.buildFromTemplate([{ role: 'appMenu' }, { role: 'editMenu' }, { role: 'windowMenu' }])
+      : null,
+  )
+
   const win = new BrowserWindow({
     width: 1280,
     height: 800,
diff --git a/src/workspaces/workspace-creator.ts b/src/workspaces/workspace-creator.ts
index e5a0f0f4..c1da6aa1 100644
--- a/src/workspaces/workspace-creator.ts
+++ b/src/workspaces/workspace-creator.ts
@@ -157,10 +157,19 @@ export class WorkspaceCreator {
         exitCode: result.exitCode,
         stderr: result.stderr.slice(0, 4000),
       });
+      // Surface the actual reason in the message, not just the exit code —
+      // a null exit code (spawn failure: bash-not-found on Windows, timeout)
+      // rendered as "code unknown" tells the user nothing, while result.stderr
+      // already carries the why (e.g. the Git-for-Windows install hint).
+      const reason = result.stderr.trim();
+      const headline =
+        result.exitCode === null
+          ? 'bootstrap could not start'
+          : `bootstrap script exited with code ${result.exitCode}`;
       return {
         ok: false,
         code: 'bootstrap_failed',
-        message: `bootstrap script exited with code ${result.exitCode ?? 'unknown'}`,
+        message: reason ? `${headline}:\n${reason.slice(-500)}` : headline,
         stderr: result.stderr,
         ...(result.exitCode !== null ? { exitCode: result.exitCode } : {}),
       };