[BUG] Cowork "Virtual Machine Platform not available" — VM never initializes, no logs created, Enable button resets after every restart

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?

Cowork shows "Virtual Machine Platform not available" and prompts to enable the feature and restart. The in-app Enable button sometimes gets stuck at ~95%, other times completes successfully and requests a restart. After restart, Cowork resets to square one — the Enable button reappears and Cowork remains unavailable. This cycle repeats indefinitely.

The VM never attempts to initialize — %APPDATA%\Claude folder does not exist at all, meaning no logs are generated.

Timeline:

1. Fresh Claude Desktop install (normal) — Cowork unavailable from the start
2. In-app Enable button for Virtual Machine Platform — sometimes stuck at ~95%, other times completes and requests restart
3. After restart, Cowork resets — Enable button reappears, Cowork still unavailable
4. Enabled VMP manually via PowerShell DISM — confirmed State: Enabled
5. Multiple reinstalls attempted, including one "Run as administrator" which broke midway (had to reinstall normally afterward)
6. All system checks pass, %APPDATA%\Claude folder never created
7. Contacted Anthropic support via Fin AI agent — no response after days

System Info:

| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| OS | Windows 11 Pro x64 |
| Claude Desktop | Latest version (confirmed via Check for Updates) |
| Subscription | Personal paid plan |
| Virtual Machine Platform | ✅ Enabled (confirmed via Get-WindowsOptionalFeature) |
| Hyper-V / Hypervisor | ✅ Running (systeminfo: "A hypervisor has been detected") |
| CoworkVMService | ✅ Running (Automatic) |
| DISM restorehealth | ✅ Completed successfully |
| SFC scannow | ✅ No integrity violations |
| %APPDATA%\Claude folder | ❌ Does not exist — VM never initializes |
| cowork_vm_node.log | ❌ Does not exist |
| Fresh reinstall | ✅ Done, issue persists |
| Cache cleared via Help > Troubleshooting | ✅ Done |

Troubleshooting completed:

• Enabled VMP via PowerShell (dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all)
• Confirmed VMP State: Enabled via Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform
• Confirmed hypervisor detected via systeminfo
• Ran sfc /scannow — no integrity violations found
• Ran dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth — completed successfully
• Fully uninstalled and reinstalled Claude Desktop (multiple times)
• Cleared cache via Help > Troubleshooting
• Restarted multiple times

Expected behavior: Cowork should detect that virtualization is enabled and launch the workspace.

Actual behavior: Cowork permanently shows the "not available" error. The in-app Enable button completes but does not survive a restart. The VM never starts. No %APPDATA%\Claude folder or log files are created.

Related issues: #32004, #25136, #27316, #29887

This appears to be the same yukonSilver platform detection bug reported in the related issues.

What Should Happen?

Cowork should work.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Install Claude desktop, Click on Cowork.

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

Claude for Windows Version 1.1.9669 (aea25d)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

_No response_