[BUG] Claude Code freezes indefinitely on relaunch after every update on Windows 11 — full PC power-cycle required to recover

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?

Environment

OS: Windows 11 Home, build 10.0.26200
Install method: WinGet (winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode)
Package ID: Anthropic.ClaudeCode
CLI version reported by winget list: 2.1.120 (with 2.1.121 available — this is the update that triggers the current freeze, but the issue has reproduced across multiple prior update cycles)
UI build version shown in the sidebar "Relaunch to update" prompt: v1.5220.0
Executable path: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Links\claude.exe
Shell: bash + PowerShell available
Summary
Every time Claude Code prompts to relaunch for an update, clicking "Relaunch to update" causes the application to hang indefinitely. The window is unresponsive — no UI updates, no input accepted, no error shown. Closing and reopening Claude Code from the Start menu also produces a frozen window. A Windows restart (Start → Restart) does not recover. The only reliable recovery is a full Windows shutdown (full power-off, not restart) followed by a manual boot. After that, Claude Code launches normally on the new version.

Steps to reproduce

Use Claude Code normally until an update becomes available via WinGet.
Click "Relaunch to update" in the sidebar.
Application closes, attempts to relaunch, then hangs.
Force-quitting and reopening Claude Code from Start → still freezes.
Restarting Windows (Start → Restart) → still freezes on next launch.
Shutting Windows down completely and powering on manually → Claude Code launches normally on the new version.
Expected behavior
Relaunch completes cleanly and Claude Code reopens on the updated version, preserving session state where applicable.

Actual behavior
Claude Code hangs on relaunch. Plain restart does not work. Full power-cycle is the only known recovery.

Frequency
100% — every update, without exception, for at least the last several update cycles.

Hypothesis to investigate
This may be specific to the WinGet install path. WinGet upgrades on a running app sometimes don't cleanly release the prior process — if Claude Code's relaunch hook runs the new binary before the prior one has fully exited, it could deadlock on a shared resource (file lock, named pipe, single-instance mutex). A plain Windows restart wouldn't necessarily clear that state if it's persisted on disk; only a full power-off would. This is a guess, but the "only full shutdown helps, restart doesn't" symptom is what points me at it.

Impact
Loses any in-flight session context that wasn't persisted, and forces a full reboot of the workstation. For me this is particularly disruptive because Claude Code is part of an automation pipeline I oversee — when I can't relaunch, I can't run scheduled checks overnight, which has cascaded into operational issues downstream.

Workaround
Full Windows shutdown + manual power-on. Plain restart does not work.

Diagnostics
Happy to provide sanitized diagnostics on request — process snapshots during the freeze, Event Viewer entries, log excerpts from %APPDATA%\Claude, etc. Let me know what would be most useful and I'll redact and attach.

What Should Happen?

Fix this please?

<img width="457" height="90" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a877a6b9-723a-4e7a-96fc-15020b227fd3" />

Error Messages/Logs

..

Steps to Reproduce

.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

after a hard shut down and restart every model works again

Claude Code Version

v1.5220.0

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Windows Terminal

Additional Information

.