Claude Cowork Setup

Summary

This article shows you how to enable Claude Cowork on Windows.

Body

Claude Desktop App on Windows

Note: Please have the Claude Desktop App installed and signed in for this guide.
  • If clicking Cowork in the Claude chat box in the desktop app presents a pop up about missing HCS services, please proceed with this guide.

Screenshot of the Claude chat interface displaying a prompt area with the text “How can I help you today?”. Options for Chat and Cowork modes are shown, along with model selection set to Sonnet 5 (Medium). A tooltip in the lower-left corner displays the message “Missing HCS services: HNS, vmcompute, vfpext.” Additional quick-action buttons, including Write, Learn, Code, Career chat, and Claude’s choice, appear below the prompt area.

  • Press the W Win + R keys on your keyboard to open Run window.

  • Type optionalfeatures into the text box and click OK.

Screenshot of the Windows Run dialog box. The Open field contains the command optionalfeatures, which opens the Windows Features settings. The dialog includes OK, Cancel, and Browse buttons, with the OK button highlighted as the next step.

  • In the Windows Features window, scroll down to Virtual Machine Platform and click the checkbox.
  • Click OK.

Screenshot of the Windows Features dialog box. The list of optional Windows components is displayed, including Virtual Machine Platform, which is highlighted to indicate selection. Other features such as SMB Direct, Telnet Client, Windows Hypervisor Platform, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Work Folders Client are also visible. OK and Cancel buttons appear at the bottom of the window. Provide your feedback on BizChat

  • An installation window will appear.
  • Click Close when it has completed the requested changes.

Screenshot of a Windows Features confirmation window displaying the message “Windows completed the requested changes.” The window indicates that the selected Windows feature has been successfully enabled. A Close button appears in the lower-right corner. Provide your feedback on BizChat

  • Restart your computer.
  • Press the W Win + X keys on your keyboard, then U, then R.
  • When you log back in, Claude Cowork will be enabled. In the chat box, click the Cowork button.

Screenshot of the Claude desktop interface displaying a blank prompt area with the text “How can I help you today?”. Options for Chat and Cowork modes appear below the prompt field. The selected model is Sonnet 5 High, and microphone input is available. A Project or folder dropdown is shown beneath the prompt area for selecting workspace content to include in the conversation. Provide your feedback on BizChat

Details

Details

Article ID: 1601
Created
Tue 8/11/26 1:02 PM
Modified
Tue 8/11/26 2:11 PM

Related Services / Offerings

Related Services / Offerings (1)

Claude for Education
Claude for Education provides UT Dallas faculty and staff with institutionally managed access to Anthropic's Claude AI assistant. The offering includes Claude Chat for everyday AI assistance, Claude Cowork for more complex, multi-step work, and Claude Code for programming and development tasks.