diff --git a/src/cascadia/TerminalConnection/ConptyConnection.cpp b/src/cascadia/TerminalConnection/ConptyConnection.cpp
index 9135f80247b..a6dcbd3b435 100644
--- a/src/cascadia/TerminalConnection/ConptyConnection.cpp
+++ b/src/cascadia/TerminalConnection/ConptyConnection.cpp
@@ -429,8 +429,9 @@ namespace winrt::Microsoft::Terminal::TerminalConnection::implementation
         // EXIT POINT
         const auto hr = wil::ResultFromCaughtException();
 
+        // GH#11556 - make sure to format the error code to this string as an UNSIGNED int
         winrt::hstring failureText{ fmt::format(std::wstring_view{ RS_(L"ProcessFailedToLaunch") },
-                                                fmt::format(_errorFormat, hr),
+                                                fmt::format(_errorFormat, static_cast<unsigned int>(hr)),
                                                 _commandline) };
         _TerminalOutputHandlers(failureText);
 
@@ -457,6 +458,7 @@ namespace winrt::Microsoft::Terminal::TerminalConnection::implementation
     {
         try
         {
+            // GH#11556 - make sure to format the error code to this string as an UNSIGNED int
             winrt::hstring exitText{ fmt::format(std::wstring_view{ RS_(L"ProcessExited") }, fmt::format(_errorFormat, status)) };
             _TerminalOutputHandlers(L"\r\n");
             _TerminalOutputHandlers(exitText);