Windows desktop app 1.24012.11.0: updater removes its own MSIX package out from under the running app, then reinstalls the same version in a loop

Platform: Windows 10 Home 19045, x64
App: Claude desktop (MSIX, Claude_..._x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc)
Bad build: 1.24012.11.0
Last good build: 1.24012.9.0

Summary

Since updating to 1.24012.11.0, the app disappears mid-session roughly every
20 minutes. Each time, Windows logs an Application Hang for claude.exe, and
sometimes the app comes back in a broken state telling the user to reinstall.

The cause is not the app crashing. Microsoft-Windows-AppXDeploymentServer/Operational
shows the package being removed while the app is running and then re-added.

What changed in 1.24012.11.0

Every update from 1.19367.0.0 (July 9) through 1.24012.9.0 (July 27) — eleven
of them — installed as a plain Add with Options 0, staging quietly and
registering on next launch via OnDemandRegisterOperation. No Remove, no
forced shutdown, no repair attempt, across seven weeks of daily multi-hour use.

1.24012.11.0 staged the same way (8/3 20:30, Options 0, deferred
registration). Hours later, a code path that appears nowhere in the prior
seven weeks of logs fires.

Failure sequence (event log, 8/4)

00:37:45  603  START RegisterByPackageFullName  1.24012.9.0   RepairAppRegistrationOption
00:37:45  419  error 0x80073D02: Unable to install because the following apps need to be closed
00:38:04  603  START RegisterByPackageFullName  1.24012.9.0   RepairAppRegistrationOption   (retry)
00:39:22  603  START RegisterByPackageFullName  1.24012.9.0   RepairAppRegistrationOption   (retry)
00:40:22  603  START Remove                     1.24012.9.0   Options 0
00:40:57       Application Hang 1002: claude.exe 1.24012.9.0 stopped interacting with Windows
00:41:45  603  START Add        (Claude-3379164722.msix)  ForceApplicationShutdownOption,ForceUpdateFromAnyVersion
00:41:54  400  OK Add                           1.24012.11.0

Note the repair targets the old version (9.0) while 11.0 sits staged.
It cannot succeed — 9.0 is running — and after three retries the fallback is
to remove the package from under the live process.

It then fails to come back

00:49:25  603  START RegisterByPackageFullName  1.24012.11.0  RepairAppRegistrationOption
00:49:26  404  FAIL 0x80073D02
00:52:23  603  START Remove                     1.24012.11.0  PreserveApplicationData,RemoveForAllUsers
00:52:23  404  FAIL 0x80073CFA
00:52:23  603  START Add        (Claude-943476606.msix)  ForceApplicationShutdownOption,...
00:52:24  462  error 0x80070020: Creating file ...\app\resources\cowork-svc.exe failed
00:52:24  404  FAIL 0x80073CF9

CoworkVMService stays running and holds a lock on cowork-svc.exe, so the
re-Add hits a sharing violation. The package is left dangling → "you need to
reinstall this app".

And then it loops, reinstalling a version it already has

08:51:51  603  START RegisterByPackageFullName  1.24012.11.0  RepairAppRegistrationOption -> FAIL
08:52:02  603  START Remove                     1.24012.11.0  Options 0
08:54:42  603  START Add                        -> OK 1.24012.11.0     (same version)
09:12:52  603  START Remove                     1.24012.11.0  Options 0    (no repair attempt at all now)
09:13:26       Application Hang 1002: claude.exe 1.24012.11.0
09:13:46  603  START Add                        -> OK 1.24012.11.0     (same version again)

Each cycle re-downloads a ~246 MB Claude-<random>.msix and force-installs
11.0 over 11.0.

Why it appears self-perpetuating

The Remove runs with Options 0, not PreserveApplicationData. After the
09:13 reinstall, every folder under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc (AC, AppData, LocalCache,
LocalState, RoamingState, Settings, SystemAppData, TempState) has a
CreationTime of 09:13:55 — i.e. app-local state is wiped every cycle,
including whatever records that 11.0 is already installed. The next tick then
has no reason not to install it again.

User-visible impact

1. The app vanishes mid-task with no warning or error, roughly every 20 min.
2. The session history list is emptied every cycle (transcripts under

~\.claude\projects\ do survive, but the app cannot show them).

1. Occasionally it lands in the dangling state demanding a reinstall.
2. ~246 MB re-downloaded per cycle.

Suggested fixes

• Never escalate a failed RepairAppRegistration to a Remove of a package

with a live process. The current fallback is more destructive than the
problem it repairs.

• Stop CoworkVMService before attempting any package operation — it is the

0x80070020 sharing violation on cowork-svc.exe every time.

• If a Remove is genuinely needed, use PreserveApplicationData; wiping

app-local state on every update is what turns one bad update into a loop.

• Guard against re-installing an already-installed version.