Claude Desktop goes blank on Windows, requires Task Manager to kill all processes before app can reopen

Status Closed — not planned

Maintainer reply None cached

Activity 9 comments · opened Apr 16, 2026 · closed Jul 20, 2026

Description

The Claude Desktop app screen goes completely blank during use. Once blank, the app cannot be closed normally or reopened — all claude.exe processes must be manually ended via Windows Task Manager before the app will launch again.

Environment

OS: Windows 11 Pro (10.0.22631)
App: Claude Desktop (Windows)
First noticed: After model update on April 16, 2026

Steps to reproduce

Use Claude Desktop normally
Screen goes blank (no apparent trigger — seems intermittent)
Attempt to close and reopen app — new window also blank or app won't launch
Must open Task Manager → end all claude.exe processes → reopen app

Expected behavior

App recovers gracefully or can be restarted without Task Manager intervention.

Related issues

#38014 — Electron cache corruption (blank screen, recurring)
#44558 — Intermittent blank screen during active session
#21803 — Blank screen after Windows Hibernate
#45031 — HDR rendering blank screen

Notes

Workaround: delete %APPDATA%/Claude/Cache, Code Cache, and GPUCache folders, then restart. This is a recurring pattern across multiple reports — flagging as a new data point tied to the April 2026 model update rollout.

View original on GitHub ↗

8 Comments

github-actions[bot] · 6 months ago

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

This issue will be automatically closed as a duplicate in 3 days.

If your issue is a duplicate, please close it and 👍 the existing issue instead
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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

caldwellcourtneyc · 6 months ago

Update: Attempted the cache-clearing workaround (deleted %APPDATA%/Claude/Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache) — blank screen issue persists. The cache clear did not resolve it.

This suggests the root cause is something other than cache corruption, possibly GPU/Electron rendering. Keeping this open as a distinct data point. Please do not auto-close.

roll0ver · 4 months ago

Same issue here on Win11pro, requires a full restart to restore function after sleep or hibernate.

josephlovall · 4 months ago

DRohlinger · 4 months ago

Same here. Recurring blank screen on Windows, reinstall didn't hold, comes back after a week.

dmerson · 4 months ago

I had the same issue, and none of the fixes worked. I have AVG security and went to settings->Blocked and Allowed Apps->Added Claude to allowed, and it works fine now.

github-actions[bot] · 2 months ago

Closing for now — inactive for too long. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

nickdariahpt · 1 month ago

This is still a major issue. Insanely annoying

Showing cached comments. Read the full discussion on GitHub ↗