[BUG] Cowork activation causes Windows 11 boot failure — Safe Mode required to recover

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?

Activating Cowork in Claude Desktop causes Windows 11 to fail booting completely. The system enters automatic repair on every subsequent boot. Safe Mode is required to uninstall Claude and restore normal boot behavior. Reproduced twice with the same result.

What Should Happen?

Windows 11 should boot normally after activating Cowork. If CoworkVMService cannot start properly, it should fail gracefully without breaking the Windows boot process.

Error Messages/Logs

No error logs available — Windows fails to boot before any logs can be captured. Automatic repair/diagnosis screen appears on every boot attempt after Cowork activation.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Download Claude Desktop installer from claude.ai/download (official source)
2. Install Claude Desktop on Windows 11
3. Launch Claude Desktop
4. Activate Cowork inside the app
5. Restart Windows when prompted
6. Windows fails to boot — automatic repair/diagnosis starts on every boot attempt
7. Recovery steps required:

• Access Advanced Options → Troubleshooting → Startup Settings → Restart
• Press key 4 to boot into Safe Mode
• Uninstall Claude Desktop via Settings → Apps
• Restart Windows — boots normally again

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes

Last Working Version

Unknown — Cowork was never functional on this system

Claude Code Version

Claude 1.1.7053 (cc1949) 2026-03-16T22:55:50.000Z

Platform

Claude Desktop

Operating System

Windows 11

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

Issue is 100% reproducible. Tested twice with identical result. Without activating Cowork, Claude Desktop works fine. CoworkVMService appears to interfere with the Windows 11 boot process upon activation.