[BUG] Installing native binary via PowerShell script installs 0KB claude.exe

Can you check the contents of %USERPROFILE%\.local\share\claude\versions and see what files are in there?

You may need to delete %USERPROFILE%\.local\share\claude\ and %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\claude, then re-run the installation script.

%USERPROFILE%\.local\share\claude\versions had 2.0.12 and 2.0.13.

• .12 -> 130,967 KB
• .13 -> 0 KB

I tried deleting .13 and installing again, but it just added another 0 KB .13 file.

I just tried deleting %USERPROFILE%\.local\share\claude\ and %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\claude and re-running the installation script and it has the same results.

• %USERPROFILE%\.local\bin\claude\claude.exe -> 0 KB
• %USERPROFILE%\.local\share\claude\2.0.13 -> 0 KB

I even tried restarting my PC to see if something needed to be cleared/released.

My co-worker was able to successfully update to 2.0.13, so I'm able to work around this for now by using his .exe.

same exact issue. can't run claude code on powershell anymore

same exact issue. can't run claude code anymore

Good to know it's not just me 😂
But sorry you're having the same issue.

I'm having the same issue.

This also repros for me.

Hey everyone!
After some debugging adventures, I found what's causing the 0-byte issue and how to fix it!

The Fix:

# Download the install script 
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://claude.ai/install.ps1" -OutFile "install-fixed.ps1"
# Open it in notepad 
notepad install-fixed.ps1 
# Find these lines (line 73, 76 respectively): 
# & $binaryPath install $Target  
# & $binaryPath install
# 
# Add --force to both: 
# & $binaryPath install --force $Target 
# & $binaryPath install --force 
# Save and run 
.\install-fixed.ps1

Fair warning: The installer will weirdly download itself _twice_ (once to %USERPROFILE%\.claude\downloads\, then again to %USERPROFILE%\.cache\claude\staging\2.0.13\)

While adding --force to the PowerShell script resolves the immediate user-facing issue, this appears to be masking an underlying bug in the claude.exe install command itself.

Root Cause Analysis: I think that the installer's update logic attempts to replace the running executable when an existing installation is detected, which fails on Windows due to file handle restrictions. This results in:

• New file created but never populated: claude.exe (0 bytes)
• Installation reports success despite the corruption

Request for Access to Build Scripts:
To properly diagnose and fix the root cause rather than applying workarounds, it would be helpful to review:

1. The installer build pipeline - Where is install.ps1 generated/hosted? (It's served from claude.ai/install.ps1 but doesn't appear in the main repository)
2. The native installer source code - The logic in claude.exe install that handles updates and self-replacement
3. The update mechanism - Why does it download to both %USERPROFILE%\.claude\downloads\ and %USERPROFILE%\.cache\claude\staging\{version}\?

Access to these would enable the community (or internal team) to:

• Fix the self-replacement logic to work correctly on Windows
• Optimize the double-download behavior
• Implement proper update mechanisms that don't rely on replacing running executables

Happy to help debug further if given access to the relevant codebases.

This is broken for Windows single-file executable versions 2.0.12-2.0.13, and will be fixed in the next release.

As a workaround, you can add --force to the install script as mentioned above (& $binaryPath install --force)

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