[BUG] Title: [Cowork] VM never recovered — all tasks stuck on "Iniciando sesión..." after "VM service not running" error

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?

Product: Cowork in Claude Desktop (NOT Claude Code)
OS: Windows 11
Claude Desktop: Latest version, Opus 4.6
Account: Claude Max
MCP Servers: All running (Filesystem, Windows-MCP, Desktop Commander, PDF By Anthropic, PDF Tools, Gemini)
Issue:
Yesterday (April 6, 2026) I received a "VM service not running" error in Cowork. After troubleshooting, MCP servers reconnected and work fine in regular Chat. However, Cowork never recovered.
Every Cowork task I create gets permanently stuck on "Iniciando sesión..." and never executes. This happens across ALL projects (tested with two different projects). The task never progresses past initialization.
Troubleshooting already attempted:

Full quit and restart of Claude Desktop (multiple times)
Waited 5+ minutes between restarts
Verified all MCP servers show "running" in Settings > Developer
Tested with multiple projects — same result
No VPN or proxy active
No claude.ai tabs open during testing
Computer awake and connected throughout

Expected behavior: Cowork task should initialize and begin executing.
Actual behavior: Task permanently displays "Iniciando sesión..." and never starts.
Note: Regular Chat in Claude Desktop works perfectly with all MCP servers. Only Cowork is affected. This appears to be an account-level VM/workspace corruption that needs a server-side reset.

What Should Happen?

Cowork task should initialize and begin executing normally.

Error Messages/Logs

Task permanently displays "Iniciando sesión..." and never starts. Yesterday received "VM service not running" error. VM never recovered.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Claude Desktop on Windows 11
2. Go to Cowork tab
3. Open any project (tested with two different projects)
4. Create a new task with any prompt
5. Task shows "Iniciando sesión..." indefinitely and never executes
6. MCP servers all show "running" in Settings > Developer
7. Regular Chat works perfectly with MCP — only Cowork is affected
8. Issue started after "VM service not running" error on April 6, 2026

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

Unknown - Cowork, not Claude Code

Claude Code Version

N/A - this is a Cowork bug in Claude Desktop, not Claude Code

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

This bug is about Cowork in Claude Desktop, NOT Claude Code. There is no dedicated repo for Cowork bugs so I'm reporting here as directed by Anthropic support. Account: Claude Max. MCP servers: Filesystem, Windows-MCP, Desktop Commander, PDF tools, Gemini — all running. Issue started after "VM service not running" error on April 6, 2026.