[BUG] Claude Desktop on Windows — Cowork connection errors after session crash

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

After Claude Desktop on Windows crashes and is restarted, two distinct errors appear in Cowork:

Error 1 — Connection aborted:

failed to write length: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine.

This error occurs after a crash, indicating the Cowork connection was forcibly terminated by the Windows host machine.

Error 2 — Process already running:

RPC error -1: process with name "blissful-sharp-gates" already running (id: fe1af3ed-5734-4202-8992-8c8b7d1491d7)

This error occurs when trying to restart Cowork after a crash. The previous session's background process did not shut down cleanly, so when a new session tries to start, it conflicts with the orphaned process still running.

Context:
These errors appear to be downstream effects of the crash/instability issue reported in issue #27710. After each crash, the Cowork VM process is left in an inconsistent state — the connection is dropped (Error 1) and the process remains running (Error 2), preventing a clean restart without a full system reboot.

What Should Happen?

Claude Desktop should either recover gracefully after a crash without leaving orphaned processes, or provide a mechanism to cleanly kill the existing Cowork session so a new one can start without requiring a full system reboot.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use Claude Desktop on Windows with Cowork enabled
2. App crashes during normal use (see related issue #27710)
3. Attempt to restart Claude Desktop / Cowork
4. Error 1 appears: "failed to write length: An established connection was aborted by the software in your host machine."
5. Error 2 appears: "RPC error -1: process with name "blissful-sharp-gates" already running (id: fe1af3ed-5734-4202-8992-8c8b7d1491d7)"
6. Cowork cannot be restarted — a full system reboot is required to clear the orphaned process

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Unknown (Claude Desktop on Windows)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

_No response_