diff --git a/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_unix.go b/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_unix.go
index 6cf63cdff..cd3962a8e 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_unix.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_unix.go
@@ -32,3 +32,9 @@ func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (StartedPty, error) {
 		Wait:    cmd.Wait,
 	}, nil
 }
+
+// TerminateLivePtys is a no-op on Unix: stopping a pty task signals the
+// child (SIGTERM, plus SIGHUP to the foreground process group when the
+// master closes), and the processes clean themselves up without lazygit
+// having to wait for them.
+func TerminateLivePtys() {}
diff --git a/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows.go b/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows.go
index 1bfb29ab5..e645ae627 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows.go
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"time"
 	"unsafe"
 
 	"github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils"
@@ -12,7 +14,14 @@ import (
 )
 
 type winPty struct {
-	hpc     windows.Handle
+	hpc windows.Handle
+	// job holds the child and every descendant it spawns; terminating it
+	// kills whatever is left of the process tree (see Close).
+	job windows.Handle
+	// conhost is a handle to the conhost.exe serving this pty, or 0 if it
+	// couldn't be identified. Held so that the teardown in Close can reap
+	// it on Windows builds whose conhost fails to run down on its own.
+	conhost windows.Handle
 	inWrite *os.File
 	outRead *os.File
 
@@ -64,6 +73,46 @@ func (p *winPty) closeHpc() {
 	windows.ClosePseudoConsole(p.hpc)
 }
 
+// How long Close waits for the conhost to run itself down after its clients
+// are gone, before concluding that it never will (see Close) and reaping it.
+const conhostExitTimeout = time.Second
+
+var (
+	// ptyTeardowns counts the in-flight teardown goroutines spawned by
+	// Close; TerminateLivePtys waits for them when lazygit exits.
+	ptyTeardowns sync.WaitGroup
+	// ptyQuit is closed by TerminateLivePtys. In-flight teardowns skip the
+	// conhost rundown wait once it is closed: the conhost serves nothing
+	// once its clients are gone, and the exit must not stall for its sake.
+	ptyQuit     = make(chan struct{})
+	ptyQuitOnce sync.Once
+)
+
+// TerminateLivePtys synchronously terminates the process trees and console
+// hosts of all ptys whose teardown hasn't finished yet. Call it when lazygit
+// is about to exit: the asynchronous teardowns in Close won't get to finish
+// (the conhost rundown wait outlives the process), and while
+// KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE reaps the clients when the job handles are closed at
+// process death, nothing would reap the conhosts on the Windows builds that
+// need it (see Close). A long diff on screen keeps its git process running
+// the whole time it is shown, so quitting with such a teardown in flight is
+// the rule, not the exception.
+func TerminateLivePtys() {
+	ptyQuitOnce.Do(func() { close(ptyQuit) })
+
+	done := make(chan struct{})
+	go utils.Safe(func() {
+		ptyTeardowns.Wait()
+		close(done)
+	})
+	select {
+	case <-done:
+	case <-time.After(2 * time.Second):
+		// Don't hold up the exit any longer; the job handles' rundown
+		// still covers the clients.
+	}
+}
+
 // Close tears the pty down without waiting for it: the teardown runs on a
 // background goroutine and Close returns immediately.
 //
@@ -83,11 +132,65 @@ func (p *winPty) closeHpc() {
 // nobody is reading anymore, so that flush can only complete once the pipe
 // is broken. The background waiter's closeHpc may already be wedged in such
 // a flush while holding p.mu; closing the pipes is what unblocks it.
+//
+// Closing the pseudoconsole delivers CTRL_CLOSE_EVENT only to the clients
+// attached to it at that moment. A child that is stopped right after being
+// spawned is still starting up and not attached yet, so the event misses it
+// and it survives, running its command to completion as an orphan — and
+// keeping its console host alive with it (#5879); the same holds for
+// grandchildren spawned while the console is going down, and for clients
+// that ignore the event (the Windows flavor of #5675). The job kill reaps
+// all of those. There is no point in delaying it: the close event is not a
+// graceful signal worth waiting on — git and the common diff tools leave it
+// to the default handler, which calls ExitProcess at whatever instruction
+// the process happens to execute — so clients that got the event are
+// already dying. Killing at an arbitrary point cannot leak a stale
+// index.lock, because pty-rendered commands don't take that lock (see
+// withPtyGitConfig in pkg/gui/pty.go).
+//
+// The pseudoconsole close gets its own goroutine because the kill must not
+// wait for it: on builds where ClosePseudoConsole blocks until the console
+// host exits (pre-24H2), the host keeps running as long as a surviving
+// client does, and that client only goes away through the job kill —
+// sequencing the kill after a blocking close would thus deadlock in
+// exactly the case the kill exists for.
+//
+// After the kill, the conhost serving the pty is reaped as well if it
+// doesn't exit by itself: a healthy conhost runs down once the reference
+// handle is closed and its clients are gone, but conhost builds before
+// Windows 11 24H2 fail to complete the rundown when a client attached
+// after the close event was delivered and was then killed — the fate of
+// exactly the clients the job kill is for — and such a conhost sits
+// around forever, serving nothing (#5879). The reap is inert on healthy
+// builds: the wait succeeds and only the handle is closed.
+//
+// When lazygit is quitting, the conhost rundown wait is skipped; see
+// TerminateLivePtys.
 func (p *winPty) Close() error {
+	ptyTeardowns.Add(1)
 	go utils.Safe(func() {
+		defer ptyTeardowns.Done()
+
 		p.inWrite.Close()
 		p.outRead.Close()
-		p.closeHpc()
+		go utils.Safe(p.closeHpc)
+
+		_ = windows.TerminateJobObject(p.job, 1)
+		_ = windows.CloseHandle(p.job)
+
+		if p.conhost != 0 {
+			timeout := conhostExitTimeout
+			select {
+			case <-ptyQuit:
+				timeout = 0
+			default:
+			}
+			event, err := windows.WaitForSingleObject(p.conhost, uint32(timeout/time.Millisecond))
+			if err != nil || event != windows.WAIT_OBJECT_0 {
+				_ = windows.TerminateProcess(p.conhost, 1)
+			}
+			_ = windows.CloseHandle(p.conhost)
+		}
 	})
 	return nil
 }
@@ -123,6 +226,52 @@ func startWaiter(proc *os.Process, p *winPty) func() error {
 	}
 }
 
+// conhostScanMu serializes CreatePseudoConsole and the child-process scans
+// around it, so that two concurrently starting ptys can't make each other's
+// "which conhost is new" diff ambiguous.
+var conhostScanMu sync.Mutex
+
+// conhostChildren returns the pids of all conhost.exe processes that are
+// direct children of this process. Errors just yield a smaller (possibly
+// empty) set; the caller treats identification as best-effort.
+func conhostChildren() map[uint32]bool {
+	pids := map[uint32]bool{}
+	snap, err := windows.CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(windows.TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0)
+	if err != nil {
+		return pids
+	}
+	defer func() { _ = windows.CloseHandle(snap) }()
+	me := uint32(os.Getpid())
+	var pe windows.ProcessEntry32
+	pe.Size = uint32(unsafe.Sizeof(pe))
+	for err := windows.Process32First(snap, &pe); err == nil; err = windows.Process32Next(snap, &pe) {
+		if pe.ParentProcessID == me && strings.EqualFold(windows.UTF16ToString(pe.ExeFile[:]), "conhost.exe") {
+			pids[pe.ProcessID] = true
+		}
+	}
+	return pids
+}
+
+// openNewConhostChild returns a handle to the single conhost child that
+// appeared since the before scan, or 0 if there isn't exactly one candidate
+// or it can't be opened.
+func openNewConhostChild(before map[uint32]bool) windows.Handle {
+	var found []uint32
+	for pid := range conhostChildren() {
+		if !before[pid] {
+			found = append(found, pid)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(found) != 1 {
+		return 0
+	}
+	h, err := windows.OpenProcess(windows.SYNCHRONIZE|windows.PROCESS_TERMINATE, false, found[0])
+	if err != nil {
+		return 0
+	}
+	return h
+}
+
 func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (sp StartedPty, err error) {
 	// Two pipes: one for the child's stdin (we never write to it, but ConPTY
 	// needs a handle), one for the child's stdout/stderr multiplexed through
@@ -148,9 +297,24 @@ func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (sp StartedPty, err error) {
 
 	// CreatePseudoConsole dupes the handles it needs internally; we release
 	// our references to the child-side ends immediately after.
-	var hpc windows.Handle
+	//
+	// It also spawns the conhost.exe serving the console session, as a
+	// direct child of this process. The teardown in Close needs a handle to
+	// that conhost (see there), but Windows offers no way to obtain one
+	// from the HPCON, so identify it by diffing our conhost children around
+	// the call. Open a real handle right away so that pid reuse can't later
+	// misdirect the teardown's reap. If identification fails, the handle
+	// stays 0 and the teardown skips the reap.
+	var hpc, conhost windows.Handle
 	size := clampPtySize(cols, rows)
-	if err = windows.CreatePseudoConsole(size, inRead, outWrite, 0, &hpc); err != nil {
+	conhostScanMu.Lock()
+	conhostsBefore := conhostChildren()
+	err = windows.CreatePseudoConsole(size, inRead, outWrite, 0, &hpc)
+	if err == nil {
+		conhost = openNewConhostChild(conhostsBefore)
+	}
+	conhostScanMu.Unlock()
+	if err != nil {
 		_ = windows.CloseHandle(inRead)
 		_ = windows.CloseHandle(outWrite)
 		return StartedPty{}, fmt.Errorf("CreatePseudoConsole: %w", err)
@@ -160,9 +324,40 @@ func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (sp StartedPty, err error) {
 	defer func() {
 		if err != nil {
 			windows.ClosePseudoConsole(hpc)
+			if conhost != 0 {
+				_ = windows.CloseHandle(conhost)
+			}
 		}
 	}()
 
+	// The child goes into a job object so that the teardown in Close can
+	// terminate the whole process tree. KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE makes the OS do
+	// that when the last handle to the job is closed, which doubles as a
+	// safety net: if lazygit exits without running the teardown, the handle
+	// is closed for it and the tree is reaped.
+	job, err := windows.CreateJobObject(nil, nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		return StartedPty{}, fmt.Errorf("CreateJobObject: %w", err)
+	}
+	defer func() {
+		if err != nil {
+			// Kills the child on error paths where it was already assigned
+			// to the job; plain handle cleanup before that.
+			_ = windows.CloseHandle(job)
+		}
+	}()
+	limits := windows.JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION{
+		BasicLimitInformation: windows.JOBOBJECT_BASIC_LIMIT_INFORMATION{
+			LimitFlags: windows.JOB_OBJECT_LIMIT_KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE,
+		},
+	}
+	if _, err = windows.SetInformationJobObject(
+		job, windows.JobObjectExtendedLimitInformation,
+		uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&limits)), uint32(unsafe.Sizeof(limits)),
+	); err != nil {
+		return StartedPty{}, fmt.Errorf("SetInformationJobObject: %w", err)
+	}
+
 	// Attach the pseudoconsole to the child via a process attribute list.
 	attrList, err := windows.NewProcThreadAttributeList(1)
 	if err != nil {
@@ -221,7 +416,7 @@ func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (sp StartedPty, err error) {
 		nil, // process security
 		nil, // thread security
 		false,
-		windows.EXTENDED_STARTUPINFO_PRESENT|windows.CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT,
+		windows.EXTENDED_STARTUPINFO_PRESENT|windows.CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT|windows.CREATE_SUSPENDED,
 		envPtr,
 		dirPtr,
 		&si.StartupInfo,
@@ -230,6 +425,22 @@ func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (sp StartedPty, err error) {
 	if err != nil {
 		return StartedPty{}, fmt.Errorf("CreateProcess: %w", err)
 	}
+
+	// The child was created suspended so that it can be assigned to the job
+	// before it runs its first instruction; that way every descendant it
+	// ever spawns is in the job from the start.
+	if err = windows.AssignProcessToJobObject(job, pi.Process); err != nil {
+		// Not in the job yet, so the deferred job-handle close can't reap it.
+		_ = windows.TerminateProcess(pi.Process, 1)
+		_ = windows.CloseHandle(pi.Thread)
+		_ = windows.CloseHandle(pi.Process)
+		return StartedPty{}, fmt.Errorf("AssignProcessToJobObject: %w", err)
+	}
+	if _, err = windows.ResumeThread(pi.Thread); err != nil {
+		_ = windows.CloseHandle(pi.Thread)
+		_ = windows.CloseHandle(pi.Process)
+		return StartedPty{}, fmt.Errorf("ResumeThread: %w", err)
+	}
 	_ = windows.CloseHandle(pi.Thread)
 
 	// Re-open the process by PID to get an *os.Process to wait on. Do this
@@ -245,6 +456,8 @@ func StartPty(cmd *exec.Cmd, cols, rows uint16) (sp StartedPty, err error) {
 
 	wp := &winPty{
 		hpc:     hpc,
+		job:     job,
+		conhost: conhost,
 		inWrite: os.NewFile(uintptr(inWrite), "conpty-in"),
 		outRead: os.NewFile(uintptr(outRead), "conpty-out"),
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows_test.go b/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows_test.go
index 0b4173561..e6581a85d 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows_test.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/oscommands/pty_windows_test.go
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package oscommands
 import (
 	"os/exec"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 )
@@ -23,3 +24,82 @@ func TestStartPtyWithZeroSize(t *testing.T) {
 		_ = sp.Pty.Close()
 	}
 }
+
+// StartPty must identify the conhost.exe that CreatePseudoConsole spawned to
+// serve the pty: the teardown in Close reaps it on Windows builds whose
+// conhost fails to run down on its own, and a failed identification silently
+// degrades to not reaping. If this fails, the child-scan in
+// openNewConhostChild no longer matches how Windows hosts pseudoconsoles.
+func TestStartPtyIdentifiesConhost(t *testing.T) {
+	sp, err := StartPty(exec.Command("cmd", "/c", "exit 0"), 80, 24)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	if err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	assert.NotZero(t, sp.Pty.(*winPty).conhost)
+
+	_ = sp.Wait()
+	_ = sp.Pty.Close()
+}
+
+// TerminateLivePtys must reap a still-running pty synchronously: it runs
+// when lazygit is about to exit, where the asynchronous teardown would not
+// get to finish. Note that it switches the package's pty teardowns into
+// quit mode for the remainder of the test binary's lifetime; that's fine
+// for the other tests here, which must hold in either mode (quit mode only
+// shortens the teardown's conhost rundown wait).
+func TestTerminateLivePtysReapsRunningPty(t *testing.T) {
+	// The output redirect is there for the reason described in
+	// TestStartPtyWithZeroSize.
+	sp, err := StartPty(exec.Command("cmd", "/c", "ping -n 30 127.0.0.1 >nul"), 80, 24)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	if err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	_ = sp.Pty.Close()
+	TerminateLivePtys()
+
+	// The teardown has completed as part of TerminateLivePtys, so the child
+	// must be gone already; the timeout is generosity, not a grace period.
+	exited := make(chan struct{})
+	go func() {
+		_ = sp.Wait()
+		close(exited)
+	}()
+	select {
+	case <-exited:
+	case <-time.After(time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("child process was not terminated by TerminateLivePtys")
+	}
+}
+
+// Closing the pty must terminate the process tree it was running, even when
+// it is closed so soon after starting that the child hasn't attached to the
+// pseudoconsole yet: such a child misses the CTRL_CLOSE_EVENT that the close
+// delivers to attached clients, and only the job-object kill reaps it.
+// Without the kill, cmd and its ping child keep running for ~30 seconds and
+// the Wait here times out.
+func TestClosePtyTerminatesChildProcessTree(t *testing.T) {
+	// The output redirect is there for the reason described in
+	// TestStartPtyWithZeroSize.
+	sp, err := StartPty(exec.Command("cmd", "/c", "ping -n 30 127.0.0.1 >nul"), 80, 24)
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	if err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
+	_ = sp.Pty.Close()
+
+	exited := make(chan struct{})
+	go func() {
+		_ = sp.Wait()
+		close(exited)
+	}()
+	select {
+	case <-exited:
+	case <-time.After(5 * time.Second):
+		t.Fatal("child process was not terminated by closing the pty")
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/gui/gui.go b/pkg/gui/gui.go
index 7713cbd57..4dcd3c209 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/gui.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/gui.go
@@ -1005,6 +1005,12 @@ func (gui *Gui) RunAndHandleError(startArgs appTypes.StartArgs) error {
 				manager.Close()
 			}
 
+			// The pty teardowns spawned by the manager closes above run on
+			// background goroutines that won't get to finish before the
+			// process exits; reap their process trees synchronously instead
+			// so that they don't outlive lazygit.
+			oscommands.TerminateLivePtys()
+
 			close(gui.stopChan)
 
 			if errors.Is(err, gocui.ErrQuit) {
diff --git a/pkg/gui/pty.go b/pkg/gui/pty.go
index 2184621ae..719f5c348 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/pty.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/pty.go
@@ -49,9 +49,9 @@ type ptyCmd struct {
 	wait    func() error
 }
 
-func (p ptyCmd) Wait() error             { return p.wait() }
-func (p ptyCmd) String() string          { return p.cmd.String() }
-func (p ptyCmd) GetProcess() *os.Process { return p.process }
+func (p ptyCmd) Wait() error      { return p.wait() }
+func (p ptyCmd) String() string   { return p.cmd.String() }
+func (p ptyCmd) Terminate() error { return oscommands.TerminateProcessGracefully(p.process) }
 
 // Some commands need to output for a terminal to active certain behaviour.
 // For example, git won't invoke the GIT_PAGER env var unless it thinks it's
diff --git a/pkg/tasks/tasks.go b/pkg/tasks/tasks.go
index 3a964c838..3768e0c19 100644
--- a/pkg/tasks/tasks.go
+++ b/pkg/tasks/tasks.go
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import (
 	"bufio"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
-	"os"
 	"os/exec"
 	"sync"
 	"sync/atomic"
@@ -24,7 +23,9 @@ import (
 type Cmd interface {
 	Wait() error
 	String() string
-	GetProcess() *os.Process
+	// Terminate makes the process stop early, as gracefully as the platform
+	// allows. It doesn't wait for the process to exit.
+	Terminate() error
 }
 
 // ExecCmd adapts *exec.Cmd to Cmd.
@@ -32,8 +33,11 @@ type ExecCmd struct {
 	*exec.Cmd
 }
 
-func (c ExecCmd) GetProcess() *os.Process {
-	return c.Process
+// Terminate sends SIGTERM on Unix. On Windows it does nothing, so a stopped
+// command keeps running until it next writes to its (by then closed) output
+// pipe.
+func (c ExecCmd) Terminate() error {
+	return oscommands.TerminateProcessGracefully(c.Process)
 }
 
 // This file revolves around running commands that will be output to the main panel
@@ -213,10 +217,7 @@ func (self *ViewBufferManager) NewCmdTask(start func() (Cmd, io.Reader), prefix
 				// when flicking through several very long diffs when diff.algorithm = histogram is
 				// being used, in which case multiple git processes continue to calculate expensive
 				// diffs in the background even though they have been stopped already.
-				//
-				// Unfortunately this will do nothing on Windows, so Windows users will have to live
-				// with the higher CPU usage.
-				if err := oscommands.TerminateProcessGracefully(cmd.GetProcess()); err != nil {
+				if err := cmd.Terminate(); err != nil {
 					self.Log.Errorf("error when trying to terminate cmd task: %v; Command: %v", err, cmd.String())
 				}