[BUG] Windows MSIX: in-app Browser crash leaves package in `Modified, NeedsRemediation` — Repair fails entirely, requiring full removal (container loss) and a reinstall that hits 0x80073CF6

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?

A Claude Code session in the Desktop app opened the in-app Browser pane and attempted a Cloudflare login page. The app terminated instantly. On relaunch Windows showed "Can't open this app — go to advanced options for Claude and select Repair."

This part matches #80444 and #81159. What differs is everything after: Repair never succeeded, and recovery cost the entire package container.

What Should Happen?

• A GPU process crash should not take down the app, and should never leave the MSIX package unlaunchable
• If a package does reach NeedsRemediation, Repair should service it — Store remediation cannot handle a developer-signed non-Store package, so Repair is a dead end by design here
• A data-preserving removal path should exist for shipped packages, since -PreserveApplicationData is unavailable
• A hardware acceleration toggle in Settings would let affected users avoid the crash entirely

Error Messages/Logs

Id 404 (Error): AppX deployment operation failed for Claude_1.24012.9.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc
with 0x80073CF6. Internal error text: 0x80073D05.

Id 613: Deployment Add operation performance summary: Failed to reach state RegistrationChanged
(Registration cost: 5515 ms)

Id 5224 (Warning): Error deleting
\\?\C:\Users\kws\AppData\Local\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc\LocalCache\Roaming\Claude\ChromeNativeHost\chrome-native-host.exe
Error code: 0x5 (access denied)

Id 503 (Warning): Failed to clean up file system entries for package Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc after reboot.
Package was removed from the removal list.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Launch Claude Desktop (Windows, MSIX build) and open the Code tab
2. Start a Claude Code session in any local project
3. Give the agent a task that requires web authentication, e.g. "log in to <service> and fetch X"
4. Let the agent open the target site in the in-app Browser pane — the page in my case was a Cloudflare-protected login page
5. The moment the agent interacts with the page, the app terminates instantly. No error dialog, no window.
6. Relaunch the app → Windows shows "Can't open this app — you'll need to go to advanced options for Claude and select Repair"
7. Check the package state:

   Get-AppxPackage *laude* | Select-Object Name,PackageFullName,Version,Status

Result: Status : Modified, NeedsRemediation

1. Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Claude → Advanced options → Terminate, then Repair

→ "We couldn't repair this app. Try again later"

1. Reboot and repeat step 8 → identical failure

Reproduced twice with the same trigger. Steps 8–9 never succeeded in either case.

Note: the crash itself matches #80444 and #81159, but in those reports Repair recovers the app. Here it never did — recovery required Remove-AppxPackage (which destroys the package container, ~11 GB) followed by a reinstall that itself failed once with AddPackage failed with HRESULT 0x80073CF6.

The lock is held by chrome-native-host.exe inside the package container — note this is not matched by the commonly suggested Get-Process claude,Cowork,Anthropic* cleanup command.

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

I don't know

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.220 (Claude Code)

Platform

Other

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_