[BUG] Failed to start Claude's workspace
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?
Failed to start Claude's workspace
HCS operation failed: failed to create compute system: HcsWaitForOperationResult failed with HRESULT 0x80070005: {"Error":-2147024891,"ErrorMessage":"","Attribution":[{"OperationFailure":{"Detail":"Construct"}}]}
Restarting Claude or your computer sometimes resolves this. If it persists, you can reinstall the workspace.
What Should Happen?
I follow all these and not fixed:
This is a Windows HCS (Host Compute Service) error — 0x80070005 means Access Denied. It's a Hyper-V/container permissions issue, not a Claude Code bug per se.
Try these steps in order:
- Run Claude Code as Administrator
Right-click → "Run as administrator"
- Restart the HCS service
Open an elevated PowerShell and run:
Restart-Service vmcompute
Restart-Service vmms
- Check Hyper-V is enabled
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V
If not enabled:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All
Then reboot.
- Check Windows Containers feature
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Containers -All
- If still failing — clean up stale compute systems
Get-ComputeProcess | Stop-ComputeProcess -Force
Or via hcsdiag.exe:
hcsdiag list
hcsdiag kill <id> # for any stale entries
- Full reset
If nothing works, try:
Uninstall Claude Code completely
Reboot
Reinstall
The most common fix for 0x80070005 is step 2 (restarting vmcompute service) or running as admin.
If the issue persists, I'd recommend reporting it at https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues with your Windows version details — it may be a known issue with specific Windows 11 builds.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
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How can I help you today?
Failed to start Claude's workspace
HCS operation failed: failed to create compute system: HcsWaitForOperationResult failed with HRESULT 0x80070005: {"Error":-2147024891,"ErrorMessage":"","Attribution":[{"OperationFailure":{"Detail":"Construct"}}]}
Restarting Claude or your computer sometimes resolves this. If it persists, you can reinstall the workspace.
Claude Model
Opus
Is this a regression?
No, this never worked
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
Version 1.1.8629 (befdfc)
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
Other
Additional Information
_No response_
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