[BUG] Claude Desktop renders black screen when Windows HDR is enabled (MSIX GPU flag limitation, unresolved since Feb 2026)

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?

Note: This is a Claude Desktop (Windows) bug, not a Claude Code CLI issue. Filing here as there is no separate repo for Claude Desktop. This is a re-filing of #25801, which was labeled invalid + stale without resolution.

Claude Desktop renders a completely black/blank screen when Windows 11 HDR is enabled. The app window opens and the process runs, but no UI content is visible. Disabling HDR immediately resolves the rendering. This has been reproducible since at least v1.1.3189 (February 2026) and persists through all subsequent versions as of April 2026.

Other Electron-based apps (Discord, VS Code) work correctly with HDR enabled on the same system.

Environment:

| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Claude Desktop | Latest (auto-updated, MSIX install via Microsoft Store) |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro 25H2 |
| CPU | Intel Core i9-13900KS |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 |
| RAM | 64 GB |
| Monitor | 2560x1440 @ 240Hz, HDR-capable, connected via DisplayPort |
| Color | 10-bit, scRGB linear color space |
| HDR | Windows HDR enabled (Settings > System > Display) |

Root Cause:

The issue is in how Claude Desktop's MSIX packaging initializes GPU compositing under HDR. The MSIX package ignores ELECTRON_EXTRA_LAUNCH_ARGS, so users cannot pass Chromium flags like --disable-gpu-compositing. Discord and VS Code (Squirrel/NSIS installers) respect this variable and render correctly with HDR.

What Should Happen?

Claude Desktop should render its UI normally regardless of HDR display settings, as other Electron apps (Discord, VS Code) do on the same system.

Any of the following would resolve the issue:

1. Respect ELECTRON_EXTRA_LAUNCH_ARGS so users can pass Chromium GPU flags to the MSIX-packaged Electron app
2. Add --disable-gpu-compositing or equivalent HDR-safe flags to the Electron config when HDR is detected
3. Expose a "Disable Hardware Acceleration" toggle in Claude Desktop's settings UI (similar to Discord's setting)
4. Upgrade the Electron version or GPU compositing pipeline to one that handles 10-bit scRGB/HDR correctly

Error Messages/Logs

No error messages or logs are produced. The app window opens with a completely black content area. The process runs normally in Task Manager. No crash, no error dialog, no log output -- just a visually blank/black render surface.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have an HDR-capable monitor connected via DisplayPort
2. Enable HDR in Windows Settings > System > Display
3. Launch Claude Desktop
4. Observe: app window opens but the content area is entirely black
5. Close Claude Desktop
6. Disable HDR in Windows Settings > System > Display
7. Relaunch Claude Desktop
8. Observe: app renders normally

Attempted remediation (all ineffective):

• Setting ELECTRON_EXTRA_LAUNCH_ARGS via sysdm.cpl with --disable-gpu-compositing
• Setting --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer
• Clearing %APPDATA%\Claude\GPUCache and %APPDATA%\Claude\Cache
• NVIDIA Control Panel per-app GPU profiles

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

N/A - Claude Desktop has never rendered correctly with Windows HDR enabled

Claude Code Version

N/A - This is a Claude Desktop (chat app) bug, not Claude Code CLI

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

Current User Workaround

I wrote a PowerShell script that programmatically toggles HDR off via the Windows Display Config API (user32.dll calls to QueryDisplayConfig, DisplayConfigGetDeviceInfo, DisplayConfigSetDeviceInfo) before launching Claude Desktop, polls until Claude exits, then re-enables HDR. This works but requires running a separate script every time and disables HDR for all other applications while Claude is open.

Related Issues

• #25801 -- Original report of this exact issue (labeled invalid + stale, no resolution)
• #26302 -- References #25801 as a related MSIX GPU flag limitation (different symptom: UI lag)
• #25929 -- Blank screen on ARM64, potentially related GPU context recovery issue

Impact

This affects any Windows user running an HDR-capable display with HDR enabled, which is an increasingly common configuration for modern monitors and GPUs. HDR is the default on many new displays. The only workaround requires PowerShell scripting knowledge and disrupts the user's display configuration for all other applications while Claude Desktop is running.

Why Re-Filing

The original issue (#25801) was filed under this repo and labeled invalid (not related to Claude Code) and stale. There is no dedicated Claude Desktop repo. This is a legitimate, unresolved bug affecting the Claude Desktop Windows app that has persisted for over two months with no acknowledgment or fix.