[UNACCEPTABLE/UNRESOLVED] Cannot open a folder in the desktop app on Windows — 7 closed issues, zero fixes, paying customers locked out of basic IDE functionality for 2+ months

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?

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Title: [UNACCEPTABLE/UNRESOLVED] Cannot open a folder in the desktop app on Windows — 7 closed issues, zero fixes, paying customers locked out of basic IDE functionality for 2+ months

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Home 10.0.26200
• Claude Code Desktop: v2.1.149
• Install type: Microsoft Store (MSIX)
• Subscription: Claude Pro (paid)

Description

The Claude Code desktop app on Windows cannot open a new session in a different folder. Not "it's a bit tricky." Not "there's a workaround." It cannot do it. This is the single most basic feature an IDE can have — File > Open Folder — and it has been broken on Windows for over two months.

Seven separate issues have been filed by different users. Several have been closed. The bug is still there. Closing issues without fixing the underlying problem is not triaging — it is gaslighting your paying customers.

Steps to reproduce

1. Pay for a Claude subscription
2. Install Claude Code desktop app on Windows
3. Try to open a second project
4. Discover you cannot
5. File a bug report
6. Watch it get closed
7. Repeat

Expected behaviour
Clicking + New session allows the user to select a project folder. This is how every IDE built since 1990 works. VS Code does it. Notepad++ does it. The VT100 terminals of the 1980s at least let you change directory.

Actual behaviour
Every new session opens in the same folder. The folder chip in the prompt bar does nothing when clicked on Windows. The only "solution" offered in closed issues is to use the CLI terminal — which is not the desktop app, and is not what users paid for.

Workarounds tried and rejected

• Dragging a folder into the prompt — does not change session root
• Running claude.exe from CLI — opens a 1980s terminal, not the desktop app you advertise
• Filing bug reports — closed without resolution

Prior reports closed without fix
#36175 (Mar 19), #46176 (Apr 10), #49888 (Apr 17), #52165 (Apr 22), #54461 (Apr 28), #54614 (Apr 29), #60151 (May 18)

That is seven reports across seven weeks from multiple independent users all describing the same thing. The pattern here is not "obscure edge case." It is "nobody on the Windows desktop app can do their job."

Impact

Anthropic markets Claude Code as a professional AI development environment. Selling a product that cannot open a folder is not a minor UX gap — it is a broken product. Users are paying subscription fees for a desktop IDE that forces them to either work in a single directory forever or drop to a command-line terminal that bypasses the product they actually paid for.

Please fix this. Do not close this issue. Do not mark it "not planned." Do not suggest the CLI as an answer. Fix the folder picker on Windows.

<img width="755" height="1148" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e406c2eb-965e-4556-a181-030c4a68d897" />

What Should Happen?

Expected behaviour
Clicking the folder chip opens a folder picker. The new session starts in the selected folder. This is standard IDE behaviour.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Open Claude Code desktop app (already associated with a project folder)
Click + New session
Observe the project folder chip in the prompt bar — it shows the previously used folder
Click the folder chip to change it
Nothing happens, or the folder does not change

Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

v2.1.149

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

Other

Additional Information

_No response_