diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 60ce90126..48814d8ae 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ Features:
 
 - Add support for Presets v9, which enables more macro expansion for the `include` field. [#3946](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cmake-tools/issues/3946)
 
+Improvements:
+
+- Ensure that any uses of `proc.spawn` work, especially for .bat and .cmd files, due to VS Code updating to Node 20. [#4037](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cmake-tools/issues/4037)
+
 Bug Fixes:
 
 - Fix our setting of `isUserPreset` for presets, only set it to `true` if it's defined in a user presets file. [#4059](https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cmake-tools/issues/4059)
diff --git a/src/proc.ts b/src/proc.ts
index fb4bf0973..1c042412c 100644
--- a/src/proc.ts
+++ b/src/proc.ts
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ export interface ExecutionResult {
 
 export interface ExecutionOptions {
     environment?: Environment;
-    shell?: boolean;
+    shell?: boolean | string;
     silent?: boolean;
     cwd?: string;
     encoding?: BufferEncoding;
@@ -113,6 +113,18 @@ export function buildCmdStr(command: string, args?: string[]): string {
     return cmdarr.map(a => /[ \n\r\f;\t]/.test(a) ? `"${a}"` : a).join(' ');
 }
 
+export function determineShell(command: string): string | boolean {
+    if (command.endsWith('.cmd') || command.endsWith('.bat')) {
+        return 'cmd';
+    }
+
+    if (command.endsWith('.ps1')) {
+        return 'powershell';
+    }
+
+    return false;
+}
+
 /**
  * Execute a command and return the result
  * @param command The binary to execute
@@ -146,6 +158,11 @@ export function execute(command: string, args?: string[], outputConsumer?: Outpu
             log.debug(localize('execution.environment', '  with environment: {0}', JSON.stringify(final_env)));
         }
     }
+
+    if (process.platform === "win32" && options.shell === undefined) {
+        options.shell = determineShell(command);
+    }
+
     const spawn_opts: proc.SpawnOptions = {
         env: final_env,
         shell: !!options.shell