@pimterry any update on this one? just been working in windows for a bit, and run into this again.

@imrehg No, sorry. I don't really have any time to look at it for at least a few weeks either, as we run up to the billing release. After that though I'll hopefully have a bunch more time for CLI improvements.

I have done a load of workshops in the last few months, with hundreds of Windows users, and I haven't ever seen this in the flesh myself, so I don't think it's a widespread issue. It'd be really interesting to know if you can reproduce it on other machines, or perhaps in a fresh VM, to help narrow down the root cause.

I hadn't seen this issue before, but I believe it matches what I saw in a user's laptop in the 2018 Barcelona Hackaton when trying to help them get started with balena.

Potentially related to #348

Short story:
You can get around this issue by selecting Use Windows' default console window during a Git Bash installation, as shown in this screenshot:

Long story:
From what I have gathered and with "an informed small jump to conclusions", Git Bash is derived from MSYS2 and suffers the same limitations, including this bug: msys2/MINGW-packages#1633

When I install MSYS2 directly, I get the same broken interactive menu as when installing Git Bash and selecting the "Use MinTTY" option during the Git Bash installation. I can get around the issue in a MSYS2 installation by following the procedure described in this comment: msys2/MINGW-packages#1633 (comment), but I could not find the mentioned file (msys2_shell.cmd) in a Git Bash installation. But by selecting "Use Windows' default console window", the MSYS2 bug is avoided.

Closed via PR #1521, which adds a Git for Windows installation note to the CLI's README file (section Choosing a shell) advising how to get around this issue (screenshot in my previous comment), with the understanding that it is ultimately a MSYS2 bug.