[BUG] OS: Windows 11 Education 25H2 "Virtual Machine not available" on CoWork

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?

Claude code has suggested I raise this bug since he could not find one with "Windows 11 Education" and thought it was worth highlighting:

Cowork tab shows "Virtual Machine Platform not available" and prompts to enable the feature and restart. Restarting does not resolve the issue. Claude Desktop is repeatedly classifying the VM configuration as yukonSilver not supported (status=unsupported) and deleting reinstall files in a loop, preventing the VM from ever initializing. This occurs despite Hyper-V being fully enabled and CoworkVMService running correctly.

What Should Happen?

Cowork should detect that hardware virtualization is fully enabled, successfully download and initialize the VM bundle, and allow access to the Cowork workspace.

Error Messages/Logs

From %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\cowork_vm_node.log:
*********
2026-03-19 17:11:48 [info] [cleanupVMBundleIfUnsupported] yukonSilver not supported (status=unsupported), checking for stale bundle...
2026-03-19 17:11:48 [info] [deleteVMBundle] Deleting reinstall files from C:\Users\Ofer\AppData\Roaming\Claude\vm_bundles\claudevm.bundle
2026-03-19 17:11:48 [info] [deleteVMBundle] Reinstall files deleted (sessiondata.img and rootfs.img.zst preserved)
2026-03-19 22:47:53 [info] [cleanupVMBundleIfUnsupported] yukonSilver not supported (status=unsupported), checking for stale bundle...
*******

The same two-line pattern repeats across every session throughout the day. The VM never progresses past this check. No further initialization logs exist.
System verification confirms no configuration issue on the user side:
*****
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V | Select State
→ State: Enabled

Get-Service CoworkVMService | Select Status, StartType
→ Status: Running | StartType: Automatic
******

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Claude Desktop (direct installer from claude.ai/download) on Windows 11 Education 25H2
2. Enable Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform, and Windows Hypervisor Platform via Windows Features
3. Restart computer
4. Launch Claude Desktop and navigate to the Cowork tab
5. Observe "Virtual Machine Platform not available" error
6. Click "Restart now" and reboot
7. Error persists unchanged
8. Check %APPDATA%\Claude\logs\cowork_vm_node.log — only yukonSilver not supported (status=unsupported) entries present, repeating on every launch

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

Never worked on this system.

Claude Code Version

Claude Desktop, direct installer from claude.ai/download (latest version as of 2026-03-19)

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

• Operating System: Windows 11 Education, Version 25H2, OS Build 26200
• No VPN software installed or active
• Not an ARM device
• Windows 11 Education is functionally equivalent to Enterprise for Hyper-V support — full Hyper-V is available and confirmed enabled, unlike Home edition
• This edition is likely underrepresented in bug reports, which may explain why it triggers the yukonSilver unsupported misclassification despite being a fully capable platform
• Related issues with identical root cause: #32004, #27316, #27420, #29887
• The vm_bundles directory does not exist at %APPDATA%\Claude\vm_bundles despite multiple launch attempts, confirming the VM never reaches the download/initialization stage
• The error message directing users to enable virtualization in BIOS is misleading — this is a platform detection bug in Claude Desktop, not a system configuration problem