[BUG] Claude Cowork Workspace Fails to Start on Windows 11 Home - Hyper-V Unavailable (0x80070005)

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?

Claude Cowork desktop app fails to start the workspace with error:
"HCS operation failed: failed to start VM: HcsWaitForOperationResult failed with HRESULT 0x80070005 - Access is denied"

The workspace VM cannot start because Windows 11 Home edition does not support Hyper-V, which Claude Cowork requires. The app gives no warning or error explaining that Windows Home is unsupported before attempting to start the VM.

What Should Happen?

Either:

1. Claude Cowork should detect that Hyper-V is unavailable and show a clear message explaining that Windows Pro/Enterprise is required, OR
2. Claude Cowork should support WSL2 as an alternative backend for Windows Home users.

Currently the app silently fails with a cryptic HCS/HRESULT error that gives users no actionable information.

Error Messages/Logs

Failed to start Claude's workspace

HCS operation failed: failed to start VM: HcsWaitForOperationResult failed with HRESULT 0x80070005: 
{"Error":-2147024891,"ErrorMessage":"Access is denied.","ErrorEvents":
[{"Message":"","Provider":"51ddfa29-d5c8-4803-be4b-2ecb715570fe","EventId":12030,"Flags":13,
"Data":[{"Type":"String","Value":"[VM-ID-REDACTED]"},
{"Type":"String","Value":"[INSTANCE-ID-REDACTED]"}]},
{"Message":"","Provider":"edacd782-2564-4497-ade6-7199377850f2","EventId":12290,"Flags":5,
"Data":[{"Type":"String","Value":"[VM-ID-REDACTED]"},
{"Type":"String","Value":"[INSTANCE-ID-REDACTED]"},
{"Type":"String","Value":"[USER-PATH-REDACTED]\AppData\Roaming\Claude\vm_bundles\claudevm.bundle\rootfs.vhdx (Lun 0)"},
{"Type":"String","Value":"0x80070005"}]},
{"VirtualDeviceFailure":{"Detail":"PowerOnCold","Name":"Synthetic Storage",
"DeviceId":"[DEVICE-ID-REDACTED]","InstanceId":"[INSTANCE-ID-REDACTED]"}}]}

Restarting Claude or your computer sometimes resolves this. If it persists, you can reinstall the workspace.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install Claude Cowork desktop app on a Windows 11 Home machine
2. Launch the app
3. Wait for workspace to start
4. Observe "Failed to start Claude's workspace" error with HRESULT 0x80070005

Root cause confirmed via debugging:

• Windows 11 Home Single Language (Build 26200.8457, Version 25H2)
• Hyper-V not available on Home edition
• vmcompute service does not exist
• WSL2 installed successfully (Version 2, Ubuntu) but does not resolve the issue

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

Unknown - first time installing on this machine

Claude Code Version

Claude 1.1617.0 (8d6345) 2026-04-09T16:10:15.000Z

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

• User account has Full Control permissions on rootfs.vhdx file
• WSL2 successfully installed (wsl --list --verbose shows Ubuntu on VERSION 2)
• VirtualMachinePlatform feature enabled via dism
• vmcompute service completely absent from system
• Get-WindowsOptionalFeature for Microsoft-Hyper-V-All returns empty (not available on Home)
• App shows no warning that Windows Home is unsupported