Anthropic Brings Claude Cowork to Windows With Full Feature Parity

Anthropic expanded its AI agent tool Cowork to Windows on February 10, closing the platform gap that had limited the desktop application to macOS users since its launch on January 12. The Windows release arrives with complete feature parity, giving the platform’s roughly 70% Windows user base access to the same agentic capabilities that triggered a $285 billion software stocks selloff recently.

Cowork operates as a desktop agent powered by Claude Opus 4.6 with a one-million-token context window. Unlike chatbot interfaces that respond to individual prompts, Cowork reads local files, executes multi-step tasks, and uses plugins to interact with external services — all running directly on a user’s machine. The Windows version supports the same workflow: users describe a task in natural language, and Cowork plans and executes it across files, applications, and connected services.

The application requires a Claude Pro ($20/month), Max ($100/month), Team, or Enterprise subscription. Free-tier users cannot access Cowork.

Plugins Expand Cowork’s Reach Beyond Code

The Windows launch coincides with Cowork’s maturing plugin ecosystem. On January 30, Anthropic Labs released 11 open-source agentic plugins spanning sales, legal, finance, marketing, data analysis, and software development. These plugins connect Cowork to external tools through Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), letting the agent pull data from CRMs, draft legal documents, analyze spreadsheets, or manage project boards without users switching applications.

The plugin architecture represents Anthropic’s bet that AI agents need deep integration with existing business tools to deliver real productivity gains. Rather than building a walled garden, the company open-sourced the plugins so developers and enterprises can modify them or build their own. This approach mirrors the strategy behind Claude Code, Anthropic’s terminal-based coding agent, and its extension into Slack for in-chat development.

Cowork’s file access capabilities distinguish it from browser-based AI tools. The agent can read and write to local directories, process documents sitting on a user’s desktop, and chain together operations that would otherwise require manual handoffs between applications. For enterprise users on Team and Enterprise plans, administrators can configure permissions and approved plugins to maintain security controls.

The Stakes Behind the Platform Expansion

The urgency behind the Windows release reflects how quickly Cowork reshaped market expectations. Within days of the macOS launch, investors began repricing SaaS companies whose products overlap with Cowork’s capabilities — project management tools, writing assistants, data analysis platforms, and workflow automation software all saw sharp declines. AI lab leaders, including those at Anthropic itself, have warned that their own companies are already hiring fewer junior workers as agentic tools handle tasks that previously required entry-level staff.

By restricting Cowork to macOS for its first month, Anthropic left the majority of potential business users — enterprises overwhelmingly run Windows — unable to access the tool. Competitors had a window to respond. Microsoft has been tightening Copilot’s integration across its Office suite, and Google’s Gemini agents are expanding within Workspace. The Windows release closes that gap before rivals could establish a lead with the enterprise Windows user base.

Anthropic, now valued near $350 billion after its latest funding round, has positioned Cowork as the centerpiece of its consumer and enterprise strategy. The company’s approach differs from competitors by running the agent locally on users’ machines rather than entirely in the cloud, giving users more control over their data and reducing latency for file-heavy operations.

The combination of full Windows support, an open plugin ecosystem, and local file access creates a product that functions less like a chatbot and more like a general-purpose digital employee. Whether that framing holds up will depend on how reliably Cowork handles the messy, multi-step workflows that define actual office work — but the market is already pricing in the possibility that it can.