[BUG]Code tab greyed out then completely missing — Claude Desktop, Windows 11
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?
My Code tab in Claude Desktop (Windows 11) started as greyed out in July 2026, and as of August 12 the tab icon is gone entirely — no </> icon next to Home at all. Cowork tab works fine, only Code is affected.
I've already tried everything support suggested: confirmed Git 2.55.0.3 is installed and on PATH, added CLAUDE_CODE_GIT_BASH_PATH to .claude/settings.json pointing to the correct bash.exe, fully uninstalled and reinstalled the app, ran CCleaner, signed out and back in multiple times, force-quit via Task Manager and relaunched. None of it fixed it. I also confirmed Code works fine on claude.ai in a browser with the same account, so it's not a billing/account issue.
This has been going on 6-8 weeks now. I renewed my subscription last month in good faith that this would get fixed. It hasn't. I've filed support tickets and gone back and forth with an AI bot, not a human, repeatedly asking for human escalation. I keep getting false promises of a human follow-up that never happens. I'm paying for a feature I can't use.
What Should Happen?
The Code tab should show up next to Home with its icon, be clickable, and let me use Claude Code — the same way the Cowork tab already works for me. Right now it's just gone.
Error Messages/Logs
Steps to Reproduce
Code tab is missing from Claude Desktop on Windows 11, every time I open it.
Claude Model
None
Is this a regression?
Yes, this worked in a previous version
Last Working Version
_No response_
Claude Code Version
Latest — app auto-updates, exact build number not visible in the UI
Platform
Anthropic API
Operating System
Windows
Terminal/Shell
PowerShell
Additional Information
_No response_
3 Comments
Six weeks of that with a bot-loop for support sounds miserable. Since a full uninstall didn't reset it, the state is probably parked somewhere the installer never touches, try clearing %APPDATA%\Claude (and any Claude local-state folder under %LOCALAPPDATA%) while signed out, then reinstall once. A --disable-gpu launch flag is also worth trying, tab rendering has glitched like this before.
Btw, I keep a portable Hermes OTG on a USB stick as my rescue agent for exactly these 'installed clean and still broken' moments...... https://github.com/MilkyWay008/Hermes-OTG if you want to poke at it.
Same issue here — Claude Desktop, Windows 11. The Code tab (previously visible alongside Chat and Cowork) disappeared from the navigation with no error message or manual update triggered on my end. No update notification, no warning — it was just gone the next time I looked.
Claude Code itself still works fine via the CLI (
claudecommand in PowerShell/Windows Terminal), so the underlying tool is unaffected — only the desktop app's tab/entry point is missing.Details:
Mine finally showed back up a couple weeks ago
On Fri, Sep 11, 2026 at 3:00 PM Pantera8 @.***> wrote: