diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5f5cd536..a785d046 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -420,14 +420,24 @@ all, so the app never renders.)
 **`GM_REMOTE=user@host` moves the browser to another machine** – `tools/lib/browser.mjs` starts it
 over SSH and forwards its CDP port back to `127.0.0.1`, so the harness itself is unchanged. The
 checks load the public base URL, so the remote side needs only a browser and internet: no repo, no
-node. Setup is an SSH key (`GM_REMOTE_KEY`, default `~/.ssh/gm-win.key`). `tools/remote/gm-browser.ps1`
-is copied over on every run and ties the browser to the SSH session – closing stdin kills it, however
-the run ends; without that leash a dropped connection left eight orphaned `chrome.exe` behind.
+node. Setup is an SSH key (`GM_REMOTE_KEY`, default `~/.ssh/gm-win.key`). Measured against a Windows
+desktop with an RTX 4070: **267 checks in 128 s and 24 smoke checks in 16 s, with this machine idle**
+(0.4 s of CPU for the whole smoke run, load average 0.04).
 
-Local CPU during a remote run is genuinely idle, but **the last remote attempt was not usable**: a
-single CDP call cost ~5 ms at first, then the tunnel degraded until the suite crawled at ~25 s per
-check. Since the GPU flags fixed the local cost, remote is a fallback that has not been made to work
-end to end – treat it as unfinished, not as a supported path.
+`tools/remote/gm-browser.ps1` is copied over on every run, and getting the browser to die with the
+run took three tries, because two obvious leashes do not hold on Windows:
+
+- **stdin is not a signal.** Only the first chunk a caller writes ever reaches the remote command,
+  so a heartbeat over stdin is indistinguishable from a dead caller – it killed a run at check 44.
+- **A dropped connection does not kill the remote command.** Windows OpenSSH leaves it running;
+  measured, six orphaned `chrome.exe` survived a SIGKILLed tunnel.
+
+What holds is the CDP port: while a run is under way the forwarded connection is established, and it
+closes the moment the run or the tunnel dies. The launcher watches for that with .NET rather than
+`Get-NetTCPConnection` – that one goes through WMI, which is denied to a non-admin account, and its
+broken CIM session took a browser down mid-run. A job object with `KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE` catches the
+rest, and a 30-minute cap bounds anything still unforeseen. Measured: the browser survives 80 s of an
+idle held connection and is gone 44 s after the local node process is killed with `-9`.
 
 **Prettier owns the formatting** (110 columns, single quotes, `.prettierrc.json`); Markdown is
 excluded because it pads table cells to equal width. ESLint therefore only ever means "this is a
diff --git a/tools/lib/browser.mjs b/tools/lib/browser.mjs
index 0ca0cab4..17b06ec6 100644
--- a/tools/lib/browser.mjs
+++ b/tools/lib/browser.mjs
@@ -95,9 +95,32 @@ export function launchBrowser({ port, width, height }) {
       remote,
       `powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File gm-browser.ps1 -Port ${port} -Size ${width},${height}`,
     ],
-    // stdin stays open on purpose: closing it is what tells the launcher to kill the browser.
-    { stdio: ['pipe', 'ignore', 'pipe'] },
+    { stdio: ['ignore', 'ignore', 'pipe'] },
   );
 
-  return { proc, stop: () => proc.stdin.end(), where: `remote browser on ${remote}` };
+  return {
+    proc,
+    /**
+     * The launcher notices a finished run on its own, but only after its idle window – a browser
+     * lingering a minute on someone else's desktop is rude, so end it now and let that window be
+     * the net for runs that die without reaching here.
+     */
+    stop: () => {
+      try {
+        execFileSync(
+          'ssh',
+          [
+            ...sshArgs(key),
+            remote,
+            'powershell -NoProfile -Command "Get-Process chrome,msedge -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force"',
+          ],
+          { stdio: 'pipe', timeout: 20_000 },
+        );
+      } catch {
+        // Unreachable host, denied, already gone: the idle window still collects it.
+      }
+      proc.kill('SIGTERM');
+    },
+    where: `remote browser on ${remote}`,
+  };
 }
diff --git a/tools/remote/gm-browser.ps1 b/tools/remote/gm-browser.ps1
index 140376e6..e2a05851 100644
--- a/tools/remote/gm-browser.ps1
+++ b/tools/remote/gm-browser.ps1
@@ -1,9 +1,54 @@
-# Launches a headless browser with the CDP port open and ties its life to this SSH session:
-# stdin closing (the caller went away, however violently) kills the whole process tree. Without
-# that leash the browser survives a dropped connection - measured: 8 orphaned chrome.exe.
-param([int]$Port = 9333, [string]$Size = "1280,800")
+# Launches a headless browser with the CDP port open and ties its life to whoever is using it.
+#
+# Two measured facts shape this. Windows OpenSSH does not kill its child when the connection
+# drops - waiting for the caller to die leaves the browser running forever (6 orphaned chrome.exe
+# after a SIGKILLed tunnel). And stdin is no signal either: only the first chunk a caller writes
+# ever arrives here, so a heartbeat over stdin looks identical to a dead caller.
+#
+# What is reliable is the CDP port itself: while a run is under way the forwarded connection is
+# established, and it closes the moment the tunnel or the run dies. So the browser stays for as
+# long as somebody is talking to it. The job object then makes the kill total - when this process
+# ends for any reason, KILL_ON_JOB_CLOSE takes the whole browser tree with it.
+param([int]$Port = 9333, [string]$Size = "1280,800", [int]$IdleSeconds = 45, [int]$MaxMinutes = 30)
 $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
 
+Add-Type -TypeDefinition @'
+using System;
+using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
+public static class GmJob {
+  [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
+  static extern IntPtr CreateJobObject(IntPtr attrs, string name);
+  [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
+  static extern bool SetInformationJobObject(IntPtr job, int infoClass, IntPtr info, uint len);
+  [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
+  static extern bool AssignProcessToJobObject(IntPtr job, IntPtr process);
+
+  const int ExtendedLimitInformation = 9;
+  const int LimitKillOnJobClose = 0x2000;
+  // Offset of LimitFlags inside JOBOBJECT_EXTENDED_LIMIT_INFORMATION on x64, and the struct's size.
+  const int LimitFlagsOffset = 16;
+  const int StructSize = 144;
+
+  public static IntPtr Create() {
+    IntPtr job = CreateJobObject(IntPtr.Zero, null);
+    if (job == IntPtr.Zero) throw new Exception("CreateJobObject failed");
+    IntPtr info = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(StructSize);
+    try {
+      for (int i = 0; i < StructSize; i++) Marshal.WriteByte(info, i, 0);
+      Marshal.WriteInt32(info, LimitFlagsOffset, LimitKillOnJobClose);
+      if (!SetInformationJobObject(job, ExtendedLimitInformation, info, StructSize))
+        throw new Exception("SetInformationJobObject failed: " + Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
+    } finally { Marshal.FreeHGlobal(info); }
+    return job;
+  }
+
+  public static void Assign(IntPtr job, IntPtr process) {
+    if (!AssignProcessToJobObject(job, process))
+      throw new Exception("AssignProcessToJobObject failed: " + Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
+  }
+}
+'@
+
 $candidates = @(
   "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe",
   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe",
@@ -25,19 +70,45 @@ $flags = @(
   'about:blank'
 )
 
+$job = [GmJob]::Create()
 $proc = Start-Process -FilePath $exe -ArgumentList $flags -PassThru -NoNewWindow
-[Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: $exe pid=$($proc.Id) port=$Port")
+[GmJob]::Assign($job, $proc.Handle)
+[Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: $exe pid=$($proc.Id) port=$Port job=on")
 
-# Either the browser dies on its own, or our caller does. Both must end this script.
+# Either the browser dies on its own, or nobody is driving it any more. Both must end this script.
+# The window has to survive the gap before the first client connects, hence starting the clock now.
+$reason = "the browser exited on its own with code"
+$started = Get-Date
+$lastClient = $started
 while (-not $proc.HasExited) {
-  if ([Console]::In.ReadLine() -eq $null) { break }
+  Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
+  if (((Get-Date) - $started).TotalMinutes -ge $MaxMinutes) {
+    $reason = "the $MaxMinutes-minute cap"
+    break
+  }
+  # .NET rather than Get-NetTCPConnection: that one goes through WMI, which is denied to this
+  # account - its CIM session broke mid-run and took the browser down with it.
+  try {
+    $tcp = [System.Net.NetworkInformation.IPGlobalProperties]::GetIPGlobalProperties().GetActiveTcpConnections()
+    $clients = @($tcp | Where-Object { $_.LocalEndPoint.Port -eq $Port -and $_.State -eq 'Established' })
+  } catch {
+    # A probe that fails says nothing about the run; the cap above is what bounds an orphan.
+    [Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: connection probe failed: $($_.Exception.Message)")
+    continue
+  }
+  if ($clients.Count -gt 0) {
+    $lastClient = Get-Date
+  } elseif (((Get-Date) - $lastClient).TotalSeconds -ge $IdleSeconds) {
+    $reason = "no CDP client for $IdleSeconds s"
+    break
+  }
 }
 
 if ($proc.HasExited) {
-  [Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: browser exited on its own with code $($proc.ExitCode)")
+  [Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: $reason $($proc.ExitCode)")
 } else {
-  # taskkill and tasklist filters are denied to this account; Stop-Process is not. Killing by name
-  # is safe here because the account exists only to run these tests.
+  # taskkill and tasklist filters are denied to this account; Stop-Process is not. The job object
+  # would do it anyway when this process ends - this just makes the kill immediate.
   Get-Process chrome, msedge -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Stop-Process -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
-  [Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: stdin closed, killed the browser")
+  [Console]::Error.WriteLine("gm-browser: $reason, killed the browser")
 }