diff --git a/agent/internal/workloads/winparse.go b/agent/internal/workloads/winparse.go
index f1ec245..fe32377 100644
--- a/agent/internal/workloads/winparse.go
+++ b/agent/internal/workloads/winparse.go
@@ -36,9 +36,13 @@ func servicePath(pathName string) string {
 		if end := strings.IndexByte(s[1:], '"'); end >= 0 {
 			return s[1 : 1+end]
 		}
-		return strings.TrimPrefix(s, `"`)
+		// No closing quote: a malformed or truncated PathName. Fall back to
+		// the unquoted handling below on the text after the opening quote,
+		// so this yields a bare path rather than a path plus trailing
+		// argument text.
+		s = s[1:]
 	}
-	if i := strings.Index(strings.ToLower(s), ".exe"); i >= 0 {
+	if i := exeBoundaryIndex(s); i >= 0 {
 		return s[:i+len(".exe")]
 	}
 	if i := strings.IndexAny(s, " \t"); i >= 0 {
@@ -47,6 +51,29 @@ func servicePath(pathName string) string {
 	return s
 }
 
+// exeBoundaryIndex finds the first ".exe" (case-insensitive) in s that
+// actually ends the executable name — followed by end-of-string, whitespace,
+// or a double quote — rather than continuing into a longer segment such as
+// ".exec". It returns -1 when no such occurrence exists, so a path like
+// `C:\Program Files\Ad.exec\tool.com -flag` is not misparsed by matching the
+// ".exe" inside "Ad.exec" and silently dropping the real filename.
+func exeBoundaryIndex(s string) int {
+	lower := strings.ToLower(s)
+	from := 0
+	for {
+		rel := strings.Index(lower[from:], ".exe")
+		if rel < 0 {
+			return -1
+		}
+		idx := from + rel
+		end := idx + len(".exe")
+		if end == len(s) || s[end] == ' ' || s[end] == '\t' || s[end] == '"' {
+			return idx
+		}
+		from = idx + 1
+	}
+}
+
 // parseServices turns the collector's JSON into workloads.
 //
 // systemRoot is a parameter rather than an environment read so this is testable
diff --git a/agent/internal/workloads/winparse_test.go b/agent/internal/workloads/winparse_test.go
index 2ed186c..4817c22 100644
--- a/agent/internal/workloads/winparse_test.go
+++ b/agent/internal/workloads/winparse_test.go
@@ -9,6 +9,14 @@ func TestServicePath(t *testing.T) {
 		{`C:\Vantage\vantage-agent.exe`, `C:\Vantage\vantage-agent.exe`},
 		{`"C:\no\args.exe"`, `C:\no\args.exe`},
 		{``, ``},
+		// ".exe" appearing inside an earlier segment ("Ad.exec") must not be
+		// treated as the end of the executable — that would drop the real
+		// filename and arguments.
+		{`C:\Program Files\Ad.exec\tool.com -flag`, `C:\Program`},
+		// An unterminated quote falls back to the unquoted handling on the
+		// text after the opening quote, yielding a bare path rather than a
+		// path plus trailing argument text.
+		{`"C:\Program Files\Contoso\svc.exe -service`, `C:\Program Files\Contoso\svc.exe`},
 	}
 	for _, c := range cases {
 		if got := servicePath(c.in); got != c.want {