How to Fix a Crashed or Frozen Update
How to Fix a Crashed or Frozen Update Hey everyone - quick troubleshooting guide based on a real issue one of our members ran into today. What Happened During a routine update, the install froze halfway through. When she tried to open Claude Code again, she got this error: The term 'C:\Users...\node_modules@anthropic-ai\claude-code\bin\claude.exe' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Translation: The update started downloading the new version but never finished. The old version was already removed, so now the system can't find the program at all. Nothing is broken with your computer or your data -- it's just a half-finished update. How to Fix It (2 Minutes) Step 1: Open PowerShell Press the Windows key Type PowerShell Click Windows PowerShell (run as Administrator if prompted) Step 2: Uninstall the broken version Copy and paste this command, then press Enter: npm uninstall -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code Wait for it to finish completely before moving to the next step. Step 3: Reinstall fresh Copy and paste this command, then press Enter: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code This will download and install a clean copy. It may take a minute or two. Step 4: Verify it works Copy and paste this command, then press Enter: claude --version You should see a version number printed out. If you do, you're good to go! If That Doesn't Work In rare cases, the leftover files from the crashed update can block the reinstall. If Step 3 fails or you still get errors, run these commands one at a time: Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:APPDATA\npm\node_modules\@anthropic-ai" npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code Then run claude --version again to confirm. How to Avoid This in the Future Don't close the terminal while an update is running -- let it finish If your internet connection drops mid-update, just re-run the install command above and it will pick up cleanly Updates usually take under a minute, so if it's been stuck for more than 5 minutes, it's safe to close and re-run the install