Cowork issues on Windows — page 2
Issues the maintainers labelled both platform:windows and area:cowork.
1,074 issues · 263 open · 811 resolved (76%) · first seen Feb 12, 2026
Is this getting better or worse?
This class of problem is holding steady. 328 new reports in the last 90 days vs 426 in the 90 before — -23%. The open backlog peaked at 263 in 2026-10 and sits at 263 today.
Derived by counting each matching issue from its creation date until it closed. First-party
computation over the anthropics/claude-code tracker — the trend is not published
anywhere upstream.
Which builds report this
280 of these reports name the Claude Code build they were running, spanning 115 releases. Heaviest reporters:
- Claude Code v2.1.111
- Claude Code v2.1.258
- Claude Code v2.1.260
- Claude Code v2.1.229
- Claude Code v2.1.170
- Claude Code v2.1.227
- Claude Code v2.1.92
- Claude Code v2.1.63
Report volume, not a defect count: an issue can mention a build without that build having caused the failure. Versions come from the version string in the bug-report template, matched against real published tags.
Do these get fixed?
Median time to close is 38 days across 811 closures. Of the 811 closures with a recorded reason, 14% were closed as completed and 696 as not-planned or duplicate. The most recent completed fix landed in 2026-10.
Workarounds reported by the community
348 of these issues post a workaround someone says worked. The highest-engagement ones:
- [BUG] Cowork: Cannot use folders outside home directory on Windows (secondary drive)
- …rs within your home directory can be used." A symbolic link workaround was also tested: creating a symlink inside the home directory pointing to the target folder on the secondary drive. Cowork resolves the symlink to it…
Found in the description of #29583 · resolved - [BUG] Cowork (Windows): all Plan9 shares fail with "Plan9 mount failed: invalid argument" after Windows update KB5124008 (26200.9445) — uninstalling the KB fixes it
- …ndbox could break again, with no obvious reason why. - This workaround has a real cost. KB5124008 is the September Patch Tuesday update and patches two actively exploited elevation-of-privilege vulnerabilities. Staying o…
Found in the thread of #92984 · still open - [BUG] Claude Desktop fails to launch on Windows — orphaned Silo / Job Object after app crash, only logoff or reboot recovers (HRESULT 0x80070020 in AppModel-Runtime EventID 215/208)
- …doesn't propagate cleanup back through the Silo Only known workaround Logoff + Login (or full reboot). This clears the orphaned handle in the user-session. Service restarts and AppX package resets do not clean it up. Th…
Found in the description of #53247 · still open - Claude Desktop (Windows): provide a way to disable the bundled Cowork background service (CoworkVMService) for users who don't use Cowork
- …esktop is not an option for me — I use it daily. - The only workarounds are user-hostile : take ownership of and force , or schedule a task at logon. Both may break on package updates and feel wrong on a system level. Se…
Found in the description of #57371 · still open - [FEATURE] Allow configuring VM bundle (vhdx) storage location
- …ve. NTFS junctions ( ) fail. There is no reliable user-side workaround. For me, it's quite unconvenient. I have to move other files to D: to continue use Cowork. - OS: Windows 11 - Latest Claude Desktop Proposed Solution…
Found in the description of #56089 · still open
Excerpts are quoted from the linked issue so you can judge relevance before opening it. Threads that only ask for a workaround, or report that there is none, are excluded. These are community suggestions, not official guidance from Anthropic — read the full thread before applying one.
Matching issues 101–200
Ranked by community engagement (reactions weighted over comments). Listing the top 300 of 1,074 matches; the statistics above cover all 1,074.
- [BUG] MSIX Installation failure: AddPackage failed with HRESULT 0x80073CF9
- Cowork VM connection timeout on Windows 11 Pro ARM64 - guest agent never connects
- [BUG] Cowork — VM service not running on Windows 11 (fresh repro + workaround; extends closed #54891 / #61559 cluster)
- [BUG] Cowork Windows: present_files returns "not accessible on the user's computer" for all files — blocks plugin installation
- [BUG] 1.3036.0: Cowork sessions crash with "Claude Code process exited with code 1" on Windows 11 Home
- Cowork "Virtualization is not available" on Windows 11 Pro 25H2 despite all features enabled
- [BUG] Cowork shows "Virtualization is not available" on Windows 11 Pro 24H2 — all Hyper-V services running, vm_bundles never created
- Cowork VM: HCS 0x80070005 (Access Denied) on Win11 25H2 - MSIX SYSTEM ACL missing
- [BUG] Cowork (Windows): tools/MCP connectors become unavailable as soon as voice mode is activated
- Local MCP servers fail with 'Not ready after 60 seconds' even though the remote connection succeeds (shared-pool readiness bug)
- [Bug] Claude Desktop VM workspace startup failure: path mismatch between AppData\Roaming and AppData\Local
- [BUG] Live Artifacts (CoworkArtifacts.callMcpTool) reject local stdio MCP servers on cold start — claude.ai relay rejects server name as non-UUID
- [BUG] Cowork sandbox disk at 100% capacity — base image too large for allocated disk
- [BUG] Cowork: FUSE mount of selected folder does not expose pre-existing files (Windows, non-home-dir path)
- [BUG + GUIDE] Cowork on Windows hangs on "Setting up Claude's workspace" — CoworkVMService signature verification failure
- [BUG] Failed to start Claude's workspace on Domain Computer
- Claude Desktop: mouse cursor disappears when the folder access permission dialog opens
- [BUG] Connected folders never mount inside VM — host reports Plan9 share added successfully, guest sees none
- [BUG] Cowork local sessions: all mcp__workspace__* tools denied without any prompt after SDK 2.1.258 (Windows)
- [BUG] Windows: CoworkVMService can never arm its own recovery actions ("Access is denied" at every start) — service death becomes a silent claude.exe hang with no crash dump (root cause of #59794 and #66849, both closed stale)
- [BUG] Cowork: skill upload truncates files >99 KB and leaves null-byte tail on re-upload
- Cowork fails to start workspace on Windows 11 Pro — “Request timed out: configure”
- Feature: Multi-session coordination primitives (cross-session messaging, session registry, compaction-resistant state, shared task board)
- [BUG] CLAUDE.md instructions silently ignored across consecutive sessions — Selective Execution Drift in Cowork/Desktop
- [BUG] Cowork fails with HCS 0x800707de after virtiofs/Plan9 mount error - Windows 11
- [BUG] Windows Desktop: device bridge handshake never acknowledged for ~18 min (connect frame sent → handshake timeout), survives reboot + app update, then self-recovers
- [BUG] Cowork "RPC pipe closed" on Windows when app is installed on non-C: drive - signature verification requires C:\Program Files\WindowsApps, workspace reinstall fails at ~80%
- [BUG] Cowork stale-cache corruption reproduced under Claude Fable 5 — host writes are clean on disk, the sandbox read view truncates (full diagnosis + fix)
- ultraplan: Remote session create failed with 403 on Max subscription
- [BUG] Cowork tab not showing on Windows 11 Pro x64 — tab completely absent from navigation
- [BUG] Cowork fails with "Claude Code process exited with code 1" — persists through reboot and clean reinstall (Windows 10, v1.3036.0)
- Scheduled tasks dispatch but never execute — sessions stuck "Running" with zero turns, causing permanent skip-cascade
- [BUG] CoworkVMService crashes when external/USB drive cannot be mounted as Plan9 share (v1.569.0.0)
- [BUG] Cowork workspace fails to start when encrypted/inaccessible drives present (Plan9 share HRESULT 0x80310000)
- [BUG]Claude Desktop Cowork Projects: Editing project folder path does not update file access permissions
- [BUG] (Windows 10 Pro x64, Hyper-V fully enabled, same HYPERVISOR_SERVICE_ERROR)
- [BUG] Cowork "Virtualization is not available" on Windows 10 Pro — logs and vm_bundles folder never created
- [BUG] Cowork plugin marketplace empty on Windows 11 Pro, workspace reinstall didn't fix,
- Windows: cowork-svc.exe burns 17-20% CPU due to per-request Authenticode verification on 1-second polling loop
- [BUG] Cowork (Windows): "Upgrade projects" forces archiving of local-folder projects — no way to upgrade them, and new project creation is blocked until they are archived
- [BUG] Cowork (Windows): device VM egress ignores the account Domain allowlist - 403 blocked-by-allowlist while set to All domains
- [BUG] Cowork broken since Chat/Cowork merge rollout 8–9 July: projects disappear within 24h (ongoing data loss) and connector tools never reach Cowork sessions (Windows 11, Desktop 1.20186.0)
- [BUG] Cowork local-agent-mode sessions missing from Recents despite intact data on disk (Windows)
- [BUG] Dispatch permanently shows "Can't reach your desktop" — needs server-side pairing reset
- [BUG]
- [BUG] AskUserQuestion fails with "Tool permission stream closed before response received" when dispatched in a parallel batch alongside other tool calls
- [BUG] Windows MSIX 3P mode: rootfs.vhdx commit fails, app self-terminates (beforeQuit)
- [BUG] Failed to resume session: EINVAL: invalid argument, stat 'C:\Users\username
- [BUG] Cowork (Windows): Claude Code child process exits with code 1 immediately on spawn; misleading CLAUDE_CODE_GIT_BASH_PATH warning
- [BUG] Desktop App 2.1.111 upgrade: Code session index wiped (recoverable via workaround); Cowork history disappeared (cause unclear)
- [Bug] virtiofs mount serves truncated file contents to sandboxed environment while host files are clean
- [BUG] Cowork: adding a folder to an existing project/task silently fails — "Session VM process not available" (Windows)
- [BUG] Cowork-Tab missing, cowork_vm_node.log never created
- Cowork VM fails to start on Windows 11 — "Claude Code process exited with code 1" persists after clean reinstall
- [BUG] Cowork Windows: cowork-vm-nat HNS network never created, bridge sockets fail on every session
- [BUG] Cowork tab not appearing on Windows 11 Home — yukonSilver not supported
- [BUG] Cowork VM timeout on Windows 11 Home Build 26200 — all prerequisites met
- [BUG] Claude Desktop Cowork on Windows fails to start VM with HCS 0x80070003
- [BUG] [Cowork] VM API unreachable on corporate network — no proxy support in VM environment
- [BUG] Cowork VM service not starting on Windows 10 after v1.1.9493 update
- [BUG] ENOSPC: no space left on device - Cowork workspace stuck at 75% on Windows 10
- [BUG] Cowork Windows: Triple-parallel VM startup race condition causes "VM is already running" failure loop
- [BUG] Claude Code Remote not connecting
- [BUG] Cowork Windows - Downloads folder fails to mount: "sandbox-helper: failed to unmount host share (virtiofs and Plan9): invalid argument"
- [BUG] [BUG] CoworkVMService non-paged pool leak (NtFC/ntfs.sys) — Restart clears it, Shutdown does not
- [BUG] Cowork Windows 10 22H2 x64: `sandbox-helper: no Plan9 drive shares mounted` — device_bash dead since 2026-09-08, survives app restart and app update
- [BUG] Cowork /sessions never garbage-collects session directories (2,328 stale dirs, disk at 100%, unrecoverable from sandbox)
- [BUG] Cowork desktop app: white screen on launch, RPC "message too large" error
- **[BUG] Cowork locks up after ~5 min — EventEmitter memory leak (MaxListenersExceededWarning) accumulates per session, Electron renderer freezes**
- [BUG] Cowork sandbox VM bundle not found in Roaming path on Windows 10 Pro (Store/AppX install) — hardlink workaround
- [BUG] Cowork plugin upload: server validation_errors[] swallowed — UI shows only generic "Plugin validation failed."
- [BUG] Cowork/Workspace EXDEV: cross-device link not permitted on Windows 11 — rootfs.vhdx rename fails
- [BUG] Cowork tab missing on Windows (only Chat and Code shown)
- [BUG] Cowork Workspace Fails on Windows with EBADF on rootfs.vhdx rename
- [BUG] Claude Desktop fails to launch on Windows 11 Home 25H2 (26200.8117) — frontend never sends configure IPC to healthy CoworkVMService
- [BUG] Cowork VM guest connection timeout on Windows 10 Pro — 60s timeout too short for HDD systems, Linux guest stalls after add_plan9_shares
- [Bug] Claude Desktop plugin upload rejects `.plugin` files despite file picker allowing them
- [FEATURE] Integrated file explorer panel in Cowork for single-monitor users
- [BUG] Cowork "Virtualization is not available" on Windows 11 with Hyper-V enabled
- [BUG] Windows: Claude Desktop fails to launch — 0x80070020 when creating the Desktop AppX container
- [BUG] CoworkVMService crasht wiederholt ("Access is denied" bei Recovery-Actions-Konfiguration), App muss neu gestartet werden – Regression nach Update auf 1.32352.1.0
- [BUG] Dispatch entry missing from Cowork sidebar in Claude Desktop (Windows) while visible on mobile
- [BUG] Missing HCS services: vfpext — persists on Windows 11 Pro ARM64 (Surface Pro 11th Edition/Snapdragon) after full Hyper-V repair
- [BUG] Missing HCS services: vfpext — persists after DISM/SFC repair and Hyper-V re-enable (Windows 11 Pro)
- [BUG] Windows MSIX/Cowork: in-app Claude Code writes silently virtualized (succeed but don't persist), and in-place updates deadlock on the Cowork VM service's file handles
- [BUG] Cowork: adding a folder to an ongoing session fails with "overlaps a protected host location", but creating a new workspace in the same folder works
- [BUG] Cowork tab missing - rootfs.vhdx detected as missing but never downloaded after clean reinstall (Windows 11)
- Cowork rootfs.vhdx.zst checksum mismatch — server serves wrong artifact (expected 21237ca8, got 01b19a53) on Win11 Home, app 1.12603.1.0
- [BUG] Cowork — VM boots but guest never connects; HNS network silently not created (Windows 11 ARM64 / Snapdragon X)
- [META] Cowork cluster — 2026-06 active sub-issues (extends closed #54891 / #54847)
- [Windows] Cowork OpenTelemetry exporter does not initialize - zero events emitted to any destination, including loopback
- [BUG] Cowork: "Download failed" error after files validated successfully (Windows 11 Home, MSIX install)
- [BUG] Cowork cannot read Drive Desktop placeholder files; failed reads burn tokens on retries
- [BUG] Cowork SSL certificate expired error on Windows 11 Enterprise — API calls fail before VM rootfs download completes in v1.3561.0
- Cowork/Dispatch VM spawns fail with "Failed to create bridge sockets after 5 attempts" after MSIX 1.2773.0.0 → 1.3036.0.0 update (Windows 11)
- Cowork workspace broken since update - VM service not running
- [Windows] Cowork: Session VM process not available - cowork-plugin-shim.sh copy fails from WindowsApps directory (VFS limitation)
- [BUG] Dispatch not working
- [BUG] Virtualization is not available: Claude's workspace requires Virtual Machine Platform, but the virtualization service isn't responding. Restart your computer to resolve this.
- [BUG] Cowork: MSIX package folder inherits NTFS compression, causing Hyper-V VHDX mount failure (0xC03A001A) — Windows 10 Pro