Installation and setup changedthird-party/claude-desktop/installation
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### Restart open apps after you install a new version
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211211* **Leave auto-update enabled** (recommended) so fixes reach users without IT intervention. Set `autoUpdaterEnforcementHours` to shorten the enforcement window (1 to 72 hours; values above 72 are rejected). Setting the key also makes the window strict: the restart fires as soon as the window elapses, without waiting for a pause in user activity.
212212* **Take releases later** by setting [`releaseChannel`](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#releasechannel) to `staggered`, the slower channel. Devices on the default, `stable`, take each release as it rolls out. Devices on `staggered` update to the release that Anthropic has marked for that channel. On Thursdays, Anthropic marks a release that has fully rolled out on `stable`, a tested production build from at least one week prior. A device on a release newer than the marked one stays on it until Anthropic marks a release newer than its own. Features and fixes, including security fixes, reach `staggered` devices later.
213* **Disable auto-update** (`disableAutoUpdates`) and redistribute new builds through your MDM on your own cadence. This is required for [air-gapped environments](#offline-installation) but means your IT team owns the update pipeline.
213* **Disable auto-update** (`disableAutoUpdates`) and redistribute new builds through your MDM on your own cadence. This is required for [air-gapped environments](#offline-installation) but means your IT team owns the update pipeline. To move open apps to each version you install, see [Restart open apps after you install a new version](#restart-open-apps-after-you-install-a-new-version).
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215215> [!WARNING]
216216>
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225225`releaseChannel` has no effect on devices where something else installs updates, such as Linux devices, which [update through apt](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/telemetry.md#auto-updates), and devices that installed Claude Desktop from the Microsoft Store.
226226
227227See [Telemetry and egress](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/telemetry.md) for the network paths the updater uses.
228
229### Restart open apps after you install a new version
230
231When you set [`disableAutoUpdates`](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#disableautoupdates) and install new versions with your own tools, an install can land while Claude Desktop is open. The open app finds the newer version on the device and shows **Relaunch to update** in the sidebar. Clicking **Relaunch to update** moves the person to the newer version.
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233On Windows, the app shows **Relaunch to update** for installs from the `.msix` package. Clicking it closes Claude Desktop, and Windows may then open the newer version. If Claude Desktop stays closed, open it again to get the newer version. Quitting and reopening Claude Desktop without the click can start the earlier version again, while signing out of Windows and back in moves the person to the newer version.
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235You can also have Claude Desktop restart itself when nobody clicks. Two keys control the restart:
236
237* [`installedUpdateEnforcementEnabled`](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#installedupdateenforcementenabled): set it to `true` to turn on the restart, which is off by default
238* [`installedUpdateEnforcementHours`](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#installedupdateenforcementhours): how long the app waits after it finds the newer version. With a number from 1 to 72, the app restarts when those hours end, even while someone is using the computer. With the key unset, the app waits 72 hours and then until the computer has been idle for 10 minutes.
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240The hours count only while the app is open and the computer is awake, and they start again from zero each time the app starts. The restart also waits while Claude is working on a task, except a task on an SSH host that the app expects to pick up again afterward.
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242On Windows, the restart covers installs from the `.msix` package. Claude Desktop closes and switches to the newest version on the device, and Windows may then open it. If the configuration that turns on the restart also reaches Windows devices, plan for the following:
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244* **Claude Desktop can stay closed**: where Windows doesn't open it, scheduled tasks and other background work stop until someone opens Claude Desktop. Opened more than five minutes after it closed, it starts on its default page instead of the page it was showing.
245* **Windows can refuse the switch**: Claude Desktop comes back on the version it had and shows **Relaunch to update** again. It doesn't try again by itself until Claude Desktop next starts, such as after someone quits and reopens it, or until you install a newer version.
246* **Other people use the same computer**: the switch can end the Cowork tasks of anyone else signed in to it, and the newest version on the device can be one that was installed for someone else.
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248Set the restart keys in the same place as `disableAutoUpdates`, such as the same MDM profile or configuration file. If an MDM profile sets only the restart keys, devices ignore a `disableAutoUpdates` value from any other source, such as a configuration file or a bootstrap server. See [Update keys and managed precedence](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/mdm.md#update-keys-and-managed-precedence).
249
250> [!NOTE]
251>
252> Add the restart keys after your devices have a version that supports them. An earlier version can show people a configuration warning at every launch, or reject the managed configuration that holds the keys and ignore the device's own configuration too. For what each platform does with a key it doesn't know, see [`installedUpdateEnforcementEnabled`](/docs/third-party/claude-desktop/configuration#installedupdateenforcementenabled).
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