Cowork stopped working on Windows 11 Home after working fine yesterday — vmms unavailable, reinstall x3 did not resolve

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?

What's Wrong?

Claude Cowork worked normally until yesterday on Windows 11 Home. Today, with no intentional system changes, Cowork stopped working (tab/execution not available). Reinstalling Claude Desktop 3 times, running DISM/SFC repair, and enabling Virtual Machine Platform did not resolve the issue.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Home, build 10.0.26200
• Architecture: x64
• Disk: 779.6 GB free
• Memory: 31.9 GB

Steps taken

1. Cowork Readiness Check: all PASS except Virtual Machine Platform (initially FAIL, missing services: vfpext)
2. Enabled Virtual Machine Platform via Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform -NoRestart → succeeded, rebooted
3. Get-Service CoworkVMService → Running
4. Get-Service vmcompute → Running
5. Get-Service vmms → Not found
6. Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName *Hyper-V* → empty result
7. Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All → error: unknown feature name
8. DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth → completed
9. sfc /scannow → completed
10. Rebooted, re-checked Hyper-V feature → still empty result
11. Confirmed edition via (Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem).Caption → Windows 11 Home
12. Fully uninstalled and reinstalled Claude Desktop — 3 times, same result each time

Expected behavior

Cowork should either continue working as it did yesterday, or the app should clearly indicate what changed and why it no longer works on this same Windows Home configuration.

Actual behavior

Cowork tab/execution unavailable. No clear error indicating root cause.

Notes

This matches the pattern in #27384 — Windows Home config that worked previously, then regressed, with local troubleshooting (including full reinstalls) unable to resolve it. Suspect this is an app-side regression rather than a system configuration issue.

What Should Happen?

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Error Messages/Logs

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Steps to Reproduce

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Claude Model

None

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

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Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

_No response_