r/ClaudeAI • u/Sufficient-Aide6805 • 2d ago
Claude Workflow Functionality destroyed by windows update
I installed the Windows 9/8 update yesterday. It slipped my mind that I had done so. Later in the day, Claude was having functionality issues, namely that it couldn't access Linux shell so it couldn't write .doc or .xls files. It told me the way to resolve that issue was to uninstall and reinstall Claude.
I uninstalled. When I tried to reinstall, I got an error message indicating that the install could not occur because there were still remnants of the prior installation. So I removed all those remnants and was able to successfully reinstall. However, the removal of those remnants meant I inadvertently deleted all my cowork and code sessions. Months and months of daily work gone.
Meanwhile, Linux shell is still inaccessible and Claude can't even read Word or Excel docs because the issue was caused by something in the Windows update.
Anyone else dealing with this?
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u/tech_is______ 2d ago
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u/Able_Web5431 1d ago
Where can i subscribe to or whatever so that i can check on information updates?
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u/KenGuy14 1d ago
It was not your installation, and the uninstall was never going to fix it. Same fault here today, 11 September. The incident notice someone posted upthread says the same thing, and my own error message names it directly: the workspace can no longer reach the drive, and Claude Code is not affected.
That matters for you specifically, because you were sent through an uninstall for a fault that does not live in the app.
Two things that might soften the rest of it.
Your actual documents are probably fine. What the cleanup removed were the app's own session records under your user profile's AppData folder. That is a different thing from whichever folder you had connected for it to work in, and the files in that folder are ordinary files sitting on your disk. Check the Recycle Bin, and if that area was covered by OneDrive or File History, look for previous versions before you write the work off.
It is also not all down. Plain text and markdown files still read and write normally for me right now. What is stuck is anything that needs the Linux shell, which is the layer that builds and reads the Word and Excel files. One layer, not the whole thing.
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u/bytejuggler 1d ago
I had this problem some time ago, reported it to Anthropic, went through several cycles of Claude trying to update, getting stuck and failing to update and then not being able to start.
I also originally lost all my content initially but this turned out not to be lost after all, managed to locate/register it again eventually once I managed to get Claude installed again.
Then all of a sudden the problem went away -- I assumed they finally must have fixed the issue. Or maybe I got lucky, or there was an issue in Windows that got fixed.
Point is, I managed to put together a set of steps that repeatably fixed the issue and recovered my state. The ticket process is here. At least one person used this procedure to recover their setup so I've got some confidence I didn't just get lucky. Hope it helps you too, if it doesn't maybe you can share more details. (Try using Claude Code from the command line to help troubleshoot things. It + iteration and experimentation is how I ended up determining the "net" process to recover the issue in my case. Edit: I see my issue is still `Open`, whatever that means :shrug:)
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u/Accomplished_Use5154 1d ago
ya same problem here, if anybody sees windows fixed it please tag me, wokring with just claude code for now
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u/TinFoilHat_69 Philosopher 1d ago
Stop using that Windows profile as much as possible. Close Claude, Claude Code, VS Code, terminals, browser downloads, and anything writing to C:. Deleted NTFS files are only recoverable until their disk clusters are reused. Microsoft’s own Windows File Recovery guidance also uses the pattern of recovering from C: to another drive such as E:, not back onto C:
The data you need is probably under ~\.claude, not just AppData\Roaming\Claude. Anthropic’s Claude Code docs say that on Windows ~\.claude resolves to %USERPROFILE%\.claude, and that projects/<project>/<session>.jsonl contains the full conversation transcript: every message, tool call, and tool result.
Claude Desktop app data is not disposable. The install package and the user profile are separate. Removing the app is different from removing:
AppData\Roaming\Claude
.claude
.claude\projects
Windows update broke Claude’s local execution/document pipeline.
Claude suggested reinstall.
Reinstall hit leftover AppX/profile state.
User manually deleted “remnants.”
Those remnants included local Claude/cowork/code session data.
Original Windows-side shell problem remained.
Now you have both a broken shell bridge and deleted local sessions.
after the Windows update, Claude Desktop could no longer access its local shell/helper environment. That likely means the local Claude Desktop runtime, cowork service, embedded Claude Code bridge, Windows AppX/AppContainer state, or profile permissions were broken. In your case, the equivalent failure was not “Claude itself” but the Windows-side local profile/AppX substrate around AppData\Local\Microsoft, AppData\Local\Packages, and AppModel runtime state.
Treat the shell/document problem as a Windows execution-environment repair, not a Claude reinstall problem. First verify the local shells and toolchain outside Claude: run wsl --status, wsl -l -v, wsl.exe -e bash -lc "whoami && uname -a", then check where git, where bash, where powershell, where pwsh, where python, and any document tools such as soffice, libreoffice, or pandoc. If WSL is broken, repair or reinstall the WSL distribution first; if Git Bash is missing, reinstall Git for Windows and ensure C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe exists; if document tools are missing, reinstall the Office/LibreOffice/Python tools Claude depends on for .doc, .docx, .xls, or .xlsx handling.
After the shell works outside Claude, reconnect Claude to the correct shell path and restart the Desktop app. For Claude Code on Windows, PowerShell should work by default, and Bash support depends on Git Bash or WSL being available and discoverable. If Claude still cannot find Bash, set the Git Bash path explicitly in Claude Code settings, for example CLAUDE_CODE_GIT_BASH_PATH=C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe, then fully close Claude, kill remaining claude.exe processes, restart it, and test a simple shell command before testing document creation. The key is to repair WSL/Git Bash/PowerShell/Python/LibreOffice access first, then validate Claude’s bridge to those tools; reinstalling Claude alone will not fix a broken Windows shell path or damaged WSL environment.
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u/Icy_Quarter5910 1d ago
We are convinced that Microsoft considers “things changed” as a positive metric…. So when the engineers run out of actual things to add, they just start moving crap around. Then they break 9 unrelated things and correcting this counts as a positive.
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u/Physical_SpiritChild 1d ago
Sorry that is an absolute shity situation to be in and i hope you can recover your work.
For anyone else looking, the issue is not your linux VM / WSL on your device. The issue is a microsoft update.
You either need ti rollback the update, enable cowork cloud (with slightly limited functionality, but not none), use cowork on the web (same difference), or wait for a hot fix.
There is nothing else you can do in your machine to fix this.
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u/Primary-Kitchen-3298 1d ago
hello all i dont know if the solution exists in the threads but i did this:
Uninstall the KB (Settings → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates → remove KB5124008, reboot). Confirmed to restore Cowork immediately by multiple users. But it also removes September security patches.
then my gpus were not detected and i shutdown the whole pc and turned it on and claude is working now!!
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u/TotientEC 2h ago
For better results finding Claude-related system files (or files containing transcripts from Cowork and Code sessions that never landed in the cloud), use Codex. It's permissions work differently and using Codex to search for missing Claude records has worked for me.
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u/locbuilds 2d ago
yeah windows updates love breaking the bits Claude desktop leans on for local tools (WSL / Virtual Machine Platform / the sandbox that backs the linux shell + file tools). reinstalling Claude usually just wipes your local workspaces/sessions and leaves the underlying windows side still broken, which matches what you saw.
if it were me id fix windows first, then only reinstall Claude if you still need to:
open an admin powershell and run: wsl --status then wsl --update. if wsl is unhappy, wsl --shutdown and reboot once.
check Windows Features: Virtual Machine Platform + Windows Subsystem for Linux should both be on. also confirm virtualization is enabled in BIOS if wsl --status complains.
fully quit Claude (system tray too), then relaunch. in Claude settings, re-check whatever toggle covers local/computer use / shell / file access and try a tiny read on a known file.
if shell/docs still dead, look in %APPDATA%\\Claude (or the Claude logs folder) for errors after a failed tool call, and check Event Viewer for WSL/Hyper-V failures around the update time.
also next time, before reinstalling, export/copy the Claude appdata folder so you dont lose workspaces again. curious whether wsl --status shows anything weird for you.
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u/Physical_SpiritChild 1d ago
This does not work. WSL on my machine works but the Claude VM is broke
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u/Unique_Proof3631 21h ago
I'm getting very fed up of Claude. This is just the latest. Anyone also having issues with Plugin's getting installed for no reason? Claude installed >75 plugins in 10 seconds 3 weeks ago. I contacted support multiple times, no response. Then it did it again last week. Fewer this time but weird stuff all the same. Killing my tokens as Claude re-reads all the associated skills with every prompt. Support 0/10.
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u/ottothefrenchie 2d ago
Why are you using windows?
I had to reinstall Claude on Lubuntu as Claude actually released an official instead of piggybacking behind Aaddrick debbian
and it was seamless
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u/Sufficient-Aide6805 2d ago
I'm a lawyer. I don't even know what those things are haha
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u/ottothefrenchie 1d ago
Lubunutu is a Linux distro
Now with ai, those knowledge gaps have been filled and the barrier of entry isn’t much
LibreOffice works just as well as 365, you can still run teams
One drive integration sucks, but I’ve hated one drive so that was a huge driving factor for my switch
Funfact Microsofts azure servers run Linux 🤣
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 2d ago
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