[BUG] Desktop app corrupted after silent "stealth update" — recurring "app is corrupt, needs repair" errors

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?

Composed by Claude:

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26200
• Claude desktop app: updated from package version Claude_1.1.6041.0_x64 to Claude_1.1.7714.0_x64 (electron-log release name reports as "Claude 1.34493.0")
• Install type: WindowsApps (MSIX-style package)

Summary
The desktop app crashed twice in one day (2026-08-21). Each time: a "cannot connect to internet" dialog appeared, the window disappeared, and relaunching produced a Windows error stating the app is corrupt and needs to be repaired. Had to manually stop/restart the "Claude VM Service" (CoworkVMService) to recover.

Root cause evidence
The app's own main-process log (%APPDATA%\Claude\logs\main.log) shows a silent background auto-update ("stealth update") triggered a relaunch on 2026-08-20 at 15:10:39, immediately after downloading update 1.34493.0:

2026-08-20 15:00:09 [info] [updater] Update downloaded and ready to install { releaseName: 'Claude 1.34493.0' }
2026-08-20 15:10:39 [info] [stealth-update] Triggering stealth update after idle timeout
2026-08-20 15:10:40 [info] beforeQuitForUpdate handler fired, going down for update
2026-08-20 15:10:40 [info] Windows session ending (close-app) - quitting the app

No entries have been written to main.log since that timestamp, despite the app being relaunched multiple times the next day (per CoworkVMService start/stop cycles at 09:26, 10:01, 10:03, 14:01, 14:03, 14:15 on 2026-08-21). This indicates the app has not completed a normal startup since that update — consistent with the package being left in a corrupted state by the update/relaunch process.

No Crashpad native-crash report and no Windows Error Reporting event exists for the Claude process in this window, suggesting the failure is in the installed package/update itself rather than a runtime crash.

Steps to reproduce
Unclear how to reproduce on demand — appears tied to the silent background update path ("stealth update after idle timeout") rather than a user-initiated update.

Workaround
Stopping and restarting the "Claude VM Service" (CoworkVMService) via Services or net stop/net start allows the app to launch again.

Secondary issue (same logs, possibly unrelated)
Crashed 2nd time a few hours after a reboot to possibly prevent the first occurrence, this time while Claude was retrieving some research from some websites. Error:
This machine is missing the Windows "Virtual Machine Platform" optional feature — vmcompute.dll and the vmcompute/HNS/vfpext services are absent — so Cowork's VM sandbox can't fully initialize:

2026-08-20 15:00:09 [info] [warm] Skipping VM warm download - YukonSilver not supported (Missing HCS services: HNS, vmcompute, vfpext)

The CoworkVMService log also shows a persistent warning on every start:

Warning: failed to open service for recovery config: Access is denied.

This may just require enabling Virtual Machine Platform, but is worth noting as it appears in the same crash window.

What Should Happen?

Claude should just continue running.

Error Messages/Logs

Steps to Reproduce

Not sure, wait a while and continue normal use.

Claude Model

Sonnet (default)

Is this a regression?

Yes, this worked in a previous version

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.237

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

Windows

Terminal/Shell

PowerShell

Additional Information

_No response_