[FEATURE] Desktop app: let users schedule/defer auto-update restarts (update window, or defer while Remote Control is connected)
Feature request: let users choose when the desktop app applies updates (update window / defer while Remote Control is in use)
Product: Claude desktop app (Windows, MSIX sideloaded build, e.g. Claude_2.16120.0.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc)
Use case: The desktop app runs on a home PC as the host for Remote Control; the user works from a phone/tablet during the day.
Problem
The desktop app downloads and applies updates on its own schedule, and applying an update restarts the app. That restart drops every Remote Control bridge (see #94049, #90867), so the user loses remote access for the rest of the day until they are physically back at the PC.
In this timezone (UTC+9), new releases usually land in the morning, which is exactly when the user has just left home. From the Windows Microsoft-Windows-AppXDeploymentServer/Operational log (event 855):
| Date | Local time | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 09-29 | 07:42, 08:00 | update to 2.9939.4 staged |
| 09-29 | 20:38 | update to 2.9939.4 applied |
| 09-30 | 07:28, 07:54 | update to 2.16120.0 applied (app restarted, Remote Control dropped) |
There is currently no setting to control this. The app's settings have nothing for updates, and because the app updates itself (not via Microsoft Store / Windows Update), OS-level update policies don't apply either.
The current workaround is a Windows scheduled task that restarts the app every night at 22:00 so that staged updates apply at night. That does not help with releases that are published in the morning.
Requested behaviour (any one of these would solve it)
- Update window setting: for example, "Apply updates only between 01:00 and 05:00" or "only on restart".
- Defer while Remote Control is connected: do not auto-restart while any session has an active Remote Control bridge; show "update ready" instead and apply it at the next idle or quit.
- Manual-only option: "Notify me, don't restart automatically", while keeping security updates on a max-deferral limit (for example, 72 h) if needed.
If a restart is unavoidable, a related fix would be for Remote Control bridges to re-establish automatically after the update relaunch (#94049).
Related issues
- #94049: auto-update silently drops all Remote Control bridges
- #90867: desktop update restart kills running Claude Code sessions
- #94691: desktop updater overrides its own "Claude is working" deferral
- #95952: staged update is invisible, then quits mid-session without warning