cucumber-js: Windows machines > Error "You're calling functions (e.g. "When") on an instance of Cucumber that isn't running. This means you have an invalid installation"

👓 What did you see?

When I try to start a scenario on a Windows 11 machine (using the VSCode CucumberOpen.cucumber-official extension) I get the following error message:

> plano-cucumber-playwright@1.0.0 debug
> cross-env PWDEBUG=1 DEBUG=pw:api cucumber-js --name Send a marketing gift-card

`publishQuiet` option is no longer needed, you can remove it from your configuration; see https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-js/blob/main/docs/deprecations.md
Error: 
          You're calling functions (e.g. "When") on an instance of Cucumber that isn't running.
          This means you have an invalid installation, mostly likely due to:
          - Cucumber being installed globally
          - A project structure where your support code is depending on a different instance of Cucumber
          Either way, you'll need to address this in order for Cucumber to work.
          See https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-js/blob/main/docs/installation.md#invalid-installations
          
    at checkInstall (C:\Users\admin\Desktop\Dr_Plano\scheduler.frontend.ng2\ui-tests\node_modules\@cucumber\cucumber\src\support_code_library_builder\index.ts:127:15)
    at C:\Users\admin\Desktop\Dr_Plano\scheduler.frontend.ng2\ui-tests\node_modules\@cucumber\cucumber\src\support_code_library_builder\index.ts:145:11
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\admin\Desktop\Dr_Plano\scheduler.frontend.ng2\ui-tests\features\app\booking-system-settings\gift-card-sale\pos-sync\boulderado.steps.ts:13:5)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1254:14)
    at Module.m._compile (c:\Users\admin\Desktop\Dr_Plano\scheduler.frontend.ng2\ui-tests\node_modules\ts-node\src\index.ts:1618:23)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1308:10)
    at Object.require.extensions.<computed> [as .ts] (c:\Users\admin\Desktop\Dr_Plano\scheduler.frontend.ng2\ui-tests\node_modules\ts-node\src\index.ts:1621:12)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1117:32)
    at Function.Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:958:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1141:19)
> ERROR: Command exited with status code 1.

✅ What did you expect to see?

The scenario should be started locally.

📦 Which tool/library version are you using?

The problem happens on cucumber-js 10.0.0. If I go back to version 9.6.0 the problem does not exist. Also, the problem seems to be Window specific. We have it on two Windows machines. On two other Mac machines, the problem does not exist.

🔬 How could we reproduce it?

If needed, I can provide a minimalistic project to reproduce it.

📚 Any additional context?

I tried to rule out all causes described in https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-js/blob/main/docs/installation.md#invalid-installations. I believe none of them is the case for me.

@cucumber/cucumber is not globally installed.

Result of npm why @cucumber/cucumber is:

@cucumber/cucumber@10.0.0
node_modules/@cucumber/cucumber
  @cucumber/cucumber@"10.0.0" from the root project
  peer @cucumber/cucumber@">=7.0.0" from @cucumber/pretty-formatter@1.0.0
  node_modules/@cucumber/pretty-formatter
    @cucumber/pretty-formatter@"1.0.0" from the root project

We are using @cucumber/cucumber in our whole project, and I believe we don’t use npm link.