diff --git a/apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs b/apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs
index c28aea0bb1b..333e2b136a6 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs
+++ b/apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs
@@ -119,6 +119,20 @@ if (REMOTE_DISPLAY_REASON) {
     `[hermes] remote display detected (${REMOTE_DISPLAY_REASON}); disabling GPU hardware acceleration to prevent flicker`
   )
 }
+
+// Keep the renderer running at full speed while the window is in the background
+// or occluded. The chat transcript streams to screen through a
+// requestAnimationFrame-gated flush; Chromium pauses rAF (and clamps timers)
+// for backgrounded/occluded renderers, so without these the live answer stalls
+// whenever the window loses focus (switching to your editor mid-turn, detached
+// devtools, another window covering it) and only paints on refocus or refresh.
+// `backgroundThrottling: false` on the BrowserWindow covers the blurred case;
+// these process-level switches additionally stop Chromium from backgrounding or
+// occlusion-throttling the renderer. Must run before app `ready`.
+app.commandLine.appendSwitch('disable-renderer-backgrounding')
+app.commandLine.appendSwitch('disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows')
+app.commandLine.appendSwitch('disable-background-timer-throttling')
+
 const SOURCE_REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(APP_ROOT, '../..')
 
 // Build-time install stamp -- the git ref this .exe was built against.
@@ -4689,7 +4703,16 @@ function createWindow() {
       webviewTag: true,
       sandbox: true,
       nodeIntegration: false,
-      devTools: true
+      devTools: true,
+      // Keep timers + requestAnimationFrame running at full speed when the
+      // window is blurred/occluded. The chat transcript streams to the screen
+      // through a requestAnimationFrame-gated flush (useSessionStateCache),
+      // so with Chromium's default background throttling the live answer
+      // stalls whenever this window isn't focused (e.g. you switch to your
+      // editor mid-turn, or open detached devtools) and only appears once you
+      // refocus or refresh. A streaming chat app must render in the
+      // background, so opt out — matching the secondary windows above.
+      backgroundThrottling: false
     }
   })