Claude Cowork VM issues

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?

Title: Cowork VM fails to restart after closing Claude Desktop (Windows 10/11)
Environment:

Claude Desktop 1.1.6041
Windows, x64
CoworkVMService present, starts manually but dies
vmcompute running, HypervisorPlatform disabled (was working without it)

What happens:

Cowork works on first launch after fresh install/VM bundle reset
Closing the app causes CoworkVMService to stop
On relaunch: "Failed to start Claude's workspace — VM service not running"
Start-Service CoworkVMService fails with "Cannot start service"
Stale processes remain ("process already running" RPC errors)
Issue originally triggered around March 9th UK DST changeover (version 1.1.4498)

What I've tried:

Full reboot
Restart-Service vmcompute
Start/Stop CoworkVMService
hcsdiag kill on stale VMs
Updated from 1.1.4498 → 1.1.5749 → 1.1.6041
Deleted vm_bundles folder completely
All fixes are temporary — works once then breaks again on next app close

Key log detail:
[VM] Warning: failed to close system handle: HcsCloseComputeSystem failed with HRESULT 0x7ffdbab731e0

What Should Happen?

Cowork should open

Error Messages/Logs

Failed to start Claude's workspace — VM service not running
[VM] Warning: failed to close system handle: HcsCloseComputeSystem failed with HRESULT 0x7ffdbab731e0

Steps to Reproduce

.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

Claude cowork 1.1.6041

Claude Code Version

Claude cowork 1.1.6041

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_