Claude Desktop renders blank screen due to Electron cache corruption (recurring, Windows)

Note: This is a Claude Desktop issue, not Claude Code. Filing here as there is no public Claude Desktop repo.

Description

Claude Desktop periodically fails to render anything — the app launches but shows a completely blank/white window. This is a recurring issue on Windows 10.

Root cause

Corrupted Electron cache directories under %APPDATA%/Claude/. The fix each time is to kill all claude.exe processes and manually delete:

• Cache
• Code Cache
• GPUCache
• Session Storage
• DawnGraphiteCache
• DawnWebGPUCache

After deleting these and restarting, the app renders normally again.

Additional issue: vm_bundles bloat

%APPDATA%/Claude/vm_bundles/ grows to 11GB+ with no apparent auto-cleanup. The .vhdx files inside are locked by Hyper-V (vmwp.exe) even after Claude is closed, requiring a reboot to reclaim the space.

Suggested improvements

1. Self-healing cache: Detect blank render state and automatically clear/rebuild the Electron caches
2. Cache reset option: Expose a "Reset app cache" option in settings or a CLI flag (e.g. --clear-cache) so users don't have to manually navigate AppData
3. vm_bundles cleanup: Implement a retention policy or cleanup on startup for old VM bundles

Environment

• Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19045
• Claude Desktop (MSIX install)
• Recurring issue — has happened multiple times