diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 3da0235d..3a7b3735 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -21,6 +21,17 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- **A config file saved with a UTF-8 BOM no longer wipes your settings** — every
+  config-dir file is read by a loader that treats any parse error as "there is
+  no file", falling back to defaults. `serde_json` rejects the U+FEFF a BOM puts
+  before the opening brace, so a BOM didn't report a broken config — it reported
+  an absent one, and tty7 came up on defaults with nothing in the log to explain
+  it. Windows makes this easy to hit by accident: PowerShell's `>`, `Out-File`
+  and `Set-Content -Encoding utf8` all write a BOM, so editing `config.json`
+  from a shell was enough to lose every setting. `config.json`, `session.json`
+  (which lost every workspace the same way) and hand-authored `themes/*.yaml`
+  now skip a leading BOM.
+
 - **New tabs and splits open in the right directory even when the shell can't be
   instrumented** ([#187](https://github.com/l0ng-ai/tty7/issues/187)) — a pane
   learned its directory from `OSC 7`, which only shells tty7 injects its
diff --git a/src/core/config.rs b/src/core/config.rs
index 01efaed6..32e2fe79 100644
--- a/src/core/config.rs
+++ b/src/core/config.rs
@@ -679,7 +679,7 @@ impl Config {
             // Missing/unreadable config is the common case — start with defaults.
             return Config::default();
         };
-        match serde_json::from_str::<Config>(&text) {
+        match serde_json::from_str::<Config>(strip_bom(&text)) {
             Ok(mut cfg) => {
                 cfg.sanitize();
                 cfg
@@ -824,6 +824,21 @@ pub fn config_path(file: &str) -> Option<PathBuf> {
     Some(config_dir()?.join(file))
 }
 
+/// Drop a leading UTF-8 BOM so a hand-edited config still parses.
+///
+/// `serde_json` rejects U+FEFF before the opening brace, and every config-dir
+/// file is read by a loader that treats *any* parse error as "there is no
+/// config" — so a BOM doesn't surface as an error, it silently resets the
+/// user's settings. Windows makes that easy to hit by accident: PowerShell's
+/// `>`, `Out-File` and `Set-Content -Encoding utf8` all write one, so a quick
+/// `... | Set-Content config.json` is enough to lose every setting.
+///
+/// `read_to_string` decodes the BOM to the single char U+FEFF, so this strips
+/// the char rather than the three raw bytes.
+pub fn strip_bom(text: &str) -> &str {
+    text.strip_prefix('\u{FEFF}').unwrap_or(text)
+}
+
 /// Write `bytes` to `path` atomically: write to a sibling temp file, fsync, then
 /// rename over the target. A crash/power-loss mid-write then leaves either the
 /// old file or the new one intact — never a truncated/half-written file that
@@ -1417,8 +1432,19 @@ mod tests {
         set_config_dir(dir);
     }
 
+    /// Serialize the tests that write the shared `config.json`: they all resolve
+    /// the same pinned path, so without this they clobber each other's file.
+    static CONFIG_FILE: std::sync::Mutex<()> = std::sync::Mutex::new(());
+
+    fn lock_config_file() -> std::sync::MutexGuard<'static, ()> {
+        // A poisoned lock only means another test failed mid-sequence; every
+        // holder rewrites the file from scratch, so the state is still sound.
+        CONFIG_FILE.lock().unwrap_or_else(|e| e.into_inner())
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn save_load_and_shell_command_round_trip_through_disk() {
+        let _guard = lock_config_file();
         pin_config_dir();
         // Persist a config with a non-default shell + font + an SSH profile, then
         // read it back.
@@ -1457,6 +1483,41 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(args, vec!["-l".to_string()]);
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn a_utf8_bom_does_not_silently_reset_the_config() {
+        let _guard = lock_config_file();
+        pin_config_dir();
+        let path = Config::path().expect("pinned config dir");
+        // Exactly what PowerShell's `>`, `Out-File` and `Set-Content -Encoding
+        // utf8` leave behind.
+        let text = "\u{FEFF}{\"font_size\": 21.0, \"restore_session\": false}";
+        write_atomic(&path, text.as_bytes()).unwrap();
+
+        // The failure this guards is silent by construction: `load` turns *any*
+        // parse error into defaults, so a BOM didn't report a bad config — it
+        // reported no config, and the user's settings appeared to vanish.
+        let loaded = Config::load();
+        assert_eq!(loaded.font_size, 21.0);
+        assert!(!loaded.restore_session);
+
+        let _ = std::fs::remove_file(&path);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn strip_bom_only_removes_a_leading_marker() {
+        assert_eq!(strip_bom("{}"), "{}");
+        assert_eq!(strip_bom("\u{FEFF}{}"), "{}");
+        // Only the first U+FEFF is a marker. A second one is content, and
+        // content that happens to be a BOM is still invalid JSON — stripping
+        // it too would be guessing at a file we can't rescue.
+        assert_eq!(strip_bom("\u{FEFF}\u{FEFF}{}"), "\u{FEFF}{}");
+        // A BOM *inside* the document is data (U+FEFF is a legal string char),
+        // so it must survive untouched.
+        let inner = "{\"tab_title\":\"\u{FEFF}\"}";
+        assert_eq!(strip_bom(inner), inner);
+        assert_eq!(strip_bom(""), "");
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn ssh_profiles_default_empty_and_parse_from_json() {
         // Absent key → empty (a config predating profiles still loads).
diff --git a/src/core/session.rs b/src/core/session.rs
index 4e426489..ff971b35 100644
--- a/src/core/session.rs
+++ b/src/core/session.rs
@@ -300,7 +300,7 @@ impl Workspaces {
     /// `{active, tabs}` session, which migrates to a single open workspace so
     /// upgrading users keep their tabs (and their attached daemon panes).
     pub fn decode(text: &str) -> Result<Self, serde_json::Error> {
-        let value: serde_json::Value = serde_json::from_str(text)?;
+        let value: serde_json::Value = serde_json::from_str(crate::core::config::strip_bom(text))?;
         if value.get("workspaces").is_some() {
             return serde_json::from_value(value);
         }
@@ -759,6 +759,25 @@ mod tests {
         ));
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn a_utf8_bom_does_not_discard_the_session() {
+        // `Session::load` treats a parse error as "no session", so a BOM on a
+        // hand-edited `session.json` doesn't warn — it drops every workspace
+        // and opens on the home page as if nothing had been saved.
+        // Legacy `{active, tabs}` shape, so this also covers the migration path.
+        let decoded = Workspaces::decode(
+            "\u{FEFF}{\"active\": 0, \"tabs\": [{\"pane\": {\"Leaf\": {\"cwd\": \"/work\"}}}]}",
+        )
+        .expect("a BOM'd session still decodes");
+        let tabs = &decoded
+            .workspaces
+            .first()
+            .expect("migrated workspace")
+            .session
+            .tabs;
+        assert_eq!(tabs.len(), 1);
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn session_defaults_fill_missing_fields() {
         // An empty object → default (active 0, no tabs).
diff --git a/src/ui/presets.rs b/src/ui/presets.rs
index 3f951cf2..80e94963 100644
--- a/src/ui/presets.rs
+++ b/src/ui/presets.rs
@@ -942,7 +942,8 @@ fn default_image_opacity() -> f32 {
 
 fn load_yaml_theme(path: &std::path::Path) -> Result<Theme, String> {
     let text = std::fs::read_to_string(path).map_err(|e| e.to_string())?;
-    let file: ThemeFile = serde_yaml::from_str(&text).map_err(|e| e.to_string())?;
+    let file: ThemeFile =
+        serde_yaml::from_str(crate::core::config::strip_bom(&text)).map_err(|e| e.to_string())?;
     let (id, derived_name) = id_and_name(path);
 
     let background = file.background.into_fill()?;