diff --git a/CHANGELOG.adoc b/CHANGELOG.adoc
index 1082ebb06..75bc1a018 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.adoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.adoc
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Release with new features and bugfixes:
 * https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/pull/693[#693]: Setup not working on Mac
 * https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/704[#704]: settings-security.xml not found
 * https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/302[#302]: Add plugin support for GraalVM
+* https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/issues/710[#710]: Make IDE workspace configuration robust
 
 The full list of changes for this release can be found in https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/milestone/14?closed=1[milestone 2024.10.001].
 
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/DirectoryMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/DirectoryMerger.java
index 34864d953..b4fb4d780 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/DirectoryMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/DirectoryMerger.java
@@ -54,21 +54,23 @@ public DirectoryMerger(IdeContext context) {
   }
 
   @Override
-  public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
+  public int merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
 
+    int errors = 0;
     Set<String> children = null;
     children = addChildren(setup, children);
     children = addChildren(update, children);
     if (children == null) {
       // file merge
       FileMerger merger = getMerger(workspace);
-      merger.merge(setup, update, variables, workspace);
+      errors += merger.merge(setup, update, variables, workspace);
     } else {
       // directory scan
       for (String filename : children) {
-        merge(setup.resolve(filename), update.resolve(filename), variables, workspace.resolve(filename));
+        errors += merge(setup.resolve(filename), update.resolve(filename), variables, workspace.resolve(filename));
       }
     }
+    return errors;
   }
 
   private FileMerger getMerger(Path file) {
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FallbackMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FallbackMerger.java
index 2111c2fd1..54bd3bae2 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FallbackMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FallbackMerger.java
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ public FallbackMerger(IdeContext context) {
   }
 
   @Override
-  public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
+  protected void doMerge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
 
     if (Files.exists(update)) {
       copy(update, workspace);
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FileMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FileMerger.java
index 2bc511322..c931f17df 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FileMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/FileMerger.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;
 
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.context.IdeContext;
+import com.devonfw.tools.ide.environment.EnvironmentVariables;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.variable.IdeVariables;
 
 /**
@@ -39,4 +40,24 @@ protected void copy(Path sourceFile, Path targetFile) {
     }
   }
 
+  @Override
+  public final int merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
+    try {
+      doMerge(setup, update, variables, workspace);
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      this.context.error(e, "Failed to merge workspace file {}", workspace);
+      return 1;
+    }
+    return 0;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Same as {@link #merge(Path, Path, EnvironmentVariables, Path)} but without error handling.
+   *
+   * @param setup the setup {@link Path} for creation.
+   * @param update the update {@link Path} for creation and update.
+   * @param variables the {@link EnvironmentVariables} to {@link EnvironmentVariables#resolve(String, Object) resolve variables}.
+   * @param workspace the workspace {@link Path} to create or update.
+   */
+  protected abstract void doMerge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace);
 }
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/JsonMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/JsonMerger.java
index f17fa5f5f..8ea8f5c21 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/JsonMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/JsonMerger.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public JsonMerger(IdeContext context) {
   }
 
   @Override
-  public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
+  protected void doMerge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
 
     JsonStructure json = null;
     Path template = setup;
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/PropertiesMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/PropertiesMerger.java
index 1bcf6bb9a..8fddfc6d4 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/PropertiesMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/PropertiesMerger.java
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ public PropertiesMerger(IdeContext context) {
   }
 
   @Override
-  public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables resolver, Path workspace) {
+  protected void doMerge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables resolver, Path workspace) {
 
     SortedProperties properties = new SortedProperties();
     boolean updateFileExists = Files.exists(update);
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/TextMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/TextMerger.java
index e9ad49d9e..e1f71ea73 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/TextMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/TextMerger.java
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ public TextMerger(IdeContext context) {
   }
 
   @Override
-  public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
+  protected void doMerge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace) {
 
     Path template = update;
     if (!Files.exists(template)) {
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/WorkspaceMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/WorkspaceMerger.java
index 36290ec3b..e09ee7795 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/WorkspaceMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/WorkspaceMerger.java
@@ -14,8 +14,9 @@ public interface WorkspaceMerger {
    * @param update the update {@link Path} for creation and update.
    * @param variables the {@link EnvironmentVariables} to {@link EnvironmentVariables#resolve(String, Object) resolve variables}.
    * @param workspace the workspace {@link Path} to create or update.
+   * @return the number of errors that occurred. Should be {@code 0} for success.
    */
-  void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace);
+  int merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables variables, Path workspace);
 
   /**
    * @param workspace the workspace {@link Path} where to get the changes from.
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/xmlmerger/XmlMerger.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/xmlmerger/XmlMerger.java
index 20f9982cb..03d4931cb 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/xmlmerger/XmlMerger.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/merge/xmlmerger/XmlMerger.java
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ public XmlMerger(IdeContext context) {
   }
 
   @Override
-  public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables resolver, Path workspace) {
+  protected void doMerge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables resolver, Path workspace) {
 
     Document document = null;
     Path template = setup;
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ public void merge(Path setup, Path update, EnvironmentVariables resolver, Path w
       resolve(document, resolver, false, template);
       save(document, workspace);
     }
+    return;
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/step/StepImpl.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/step/StepImpl.java
index 56c0dc3d8..7788e0068 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/step/StepImpl.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/step/StepImpl.java
@@ -211,7 +211,11 @@ private void logErrorSummary(int depth, StepSummary summary) {
     boolean failure = isFailure();
     summary.add(failure);
     if (failure) {
-      this.context.error("{}Step '{}' failed: {}", getIndent(depth), getNameWithParams(), this.errorMessage);
+      String error = this.errorMessage;
+      if (error == null) {
+        error = "unexpected error";
+      }
+      this.context.error("{}Step '{}' failed: {}", getIndent(depth), getNameWithParams(), error);
     }
     depth++;
     for (StepImpl child : this.children) {
diff --git a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/ide/IdeToolCommandlet.java b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/ide/IdeToolCommandlet.java
index 73649064d..699e96019 100644
--- a/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/ide/IdeToolCommandlet.java
+++ b/cli/src/main/java/com/devonfw/tools/ide/tool/ide/IdeToolCommandlet.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.context.IdeContext;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.io.FileAccess;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.process.ProcessMode;
+import com.devonfw.tools.ide.step.Step;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.ToolCommandlet;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.eclipse.Eclipse;
 import com.devonfw.tools.ide.tool.intellij.Intellij;
@@ -74,7 +75,17 @@ protected void configureWorkspace() {
     if (!fileAccess.isExpectedFolder(ideWorkspacePath)) {
       return; // should actually never happen...
     }
-    this.context.step("Configuring workspace {} for IDE {}", ideWorkspacePath.getFileName(), this.tool);
-    this.context.getWorkspaceMerger().merge(setupFolder, updateFolder, this.context.getVariables(), ideWorkspacePath);
+    try (Step step = this.context.newStep("Configuring workspace " + ideWorkspacePath.getFileName() + " for IDE " + this.tool)) {
+      int errors = this.context.getWorkspaceMerger().merge(setupFolder, updateFolder, this.context.getVariables(), ideWorkspacePath);
+      if (errors == 0) {
+        step.success();
+      } else {
+        step.error("Your workspace configuration failed with {} error(s) - see log above.\n"
+            + "This is either a configuration error in your settings git repository or a bug in IDEasy.\n"
+            + "Please analyze the above errors with your team or IDE-admin and try to fix the problem.", errors);
+        this.context.askToContinue(
+            "In order to prevent you from being blocked, you can start your IDE anyhow but some configuration may not be in sync.");
+      }
+    }
   }
 }