diff --git a/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/server.rs b/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/server.rs
index f671874f..37156b4b 100644
--- a/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/server.rs
+++ b/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/server.rs
@@ -543,23 +543,28 @@ fn report_conpty_host() {
 fn run_with(registry: Arc<Registry>) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
     crate::daemon::control::server_started();
 
-    // A stale daemon.port whose recorded daemon is gone cannot belong to a
-    // live server: skip the probe (which would pay the OS's refusal delay on
-    // the dead port) and let the bind below overwrite the file. A live
-    // recorded daemon still gets the connect — the singleton seat is held by
-    // this process, so it can only be a foreign server worth refusing.
-    if transport::endpoint_exists() && !crate::daemon::spawn::recorded_daemon_is_dead() {
-        match transport::connect() {
-            Ok(_) => {
-                anyhow::bail!(
-                    "daemon already running at {}",
-                    transport::endpoint_display()
-                );
-            }
-            Err(_) => {
-                transport::remove_stale_endpoint();
-            }
+    // A stale endpoint whose recorded daemon is gone cannot belong to a live
+    // server, so there is nothing worth asking it: skip the probe, which would
+    // otherwise pay the OS's refusal delay on a dead port. A live recorded
+    // daemon still gets the connect — the singleton seat is held by this
+    // process, so anything answering is a foreign server worth refusing.
+    //
+    // The removal is not part of that shortcut, though, and used to be: the
+    // endpoint on unix is a socket *file*, and `bind` on a path that exists
+    // fails with EADDRINUSE rather than replacing it, where a Windows
+    // daemon.port is a recorded number the next bind simply overwrites. So the
+    // one case that most needs the unlink — the recorded daemon gone, which is
+    // every unclean death: SIGKILL, OOM, a lost machine — was the case that
+    // skipped it, and the server could not start again until somebody deleted
+    // a socket out of the temp dir by hand.
+    if transport::endpoint_exists() {
+        if !crate::daemon::spawn::recorded_daemon_is_dead() && transport::connect().is_ok() {
+            anyhow::bail!(
+                "daemon already running at {}",
+                transport::endpoint_display()
+            );
         }
+        transport::remove_stale_endpoint();
     }
 
     let listener = transport::bind()?;
diff --git a/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/transport.rs b/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/transport.rs
index fdefd3f5..353b5bd1 100644
--- a/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/transport.rs
+++ b/crates/tty7-core/src/daemon/transport.rs
@@ -167,6 +167,38 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(!endpoint_exists(), "endpoint cleared after removal");
     }
 
+    /// A socket file left behind by a killed daemon blocks the next `bind`.
+    ///
+    /// This is the fact `run_with` turns on: a unix endpoint is a *file*, and
+    /// binding a path that exists fails rather than replacing it, so the
+    /// startup path has to unlink a dead predecessor's socket itself. Windows
+    /// records a port instead, which the next bind simply overwrites — that
+    /// difference is what let the unlink get skipped on the one path where it
+    /// was load-bearing, and a `kill -9` then left the daemon unable to start.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_leftover_socket_file_blocks_the_next_bind_until_it_is_removed() {
+        pin_config_dir();
+        remove_stale_endpoint();
+
+        let dead = bind().expect("first bind");
+        drop(dead); // as a killed daemon leaves it: file on disk, nobody listening
+        assert!(endpoint_exists(), "SIGKILL leaves the socket file behind");
+        assert!(
+            connect().is_err(),
+            "nothing is listening, so the path is provably stale"
+        );
+
+        assert!(
+            bind().is_err(),
+            "binding an existing socket path fails — this is the whole bug"
+        );
+
+        remove_stale_endpoint();
+        let fresh = bind().expect("bind succeeds once the stale file is gone");
+        drop(fresh);
+        remove_stale_endpoint();
+    }
+
     #[test]
     fn socket_path_stays_in_config_dir_when_it_fits() {
         let dir = std::path::PathBuf::from("/tmp/tty7-short");