What's new
Every update is free for buyers, forever. The Mac app checks a static version file once a day and shows a quiet row when an update is out — no telemetry, nothing about you is sent.
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Mac v3.8 — one click undoes what Claude's updater did August 2026
- The mess this fixes: Claude's own updater closes every window to install, then restarts one plain window — with no account attached, so it comes up on your normal (Main) account. Your accounts and logins are untouched, but what's on screen isn't what you had: a leftover window you didn't ask for, and your account windows gone. Until now the update notice could put your accounts back, but the leftover window was yours to hunt down.
- Now it's one click. When the app can positively tell that the window on screen is the updater's own restart — it watched your Main account not running before the update, and the window appeared with the restart — the notice offers "Close the updater's window & reopen your accounts". One click, everything back. When it can't be sure the window isn't one you opened yourself, it never touches it — being unsure means hands off.
- Two windows on Main also got a button. Claude has no lock against opening the same account twice (a Dock click on top of an already-open Main does it), and two windows writing one profile is how profiles get corrupted. The warning now closes the newer duplicate for you — and always keeps the window that was open first, the one that could be holding your work. Closing is polite: if that window is somehow busy, Claude's own "are you sure" still has the last word.
- Built on two reports from the same customer whose screenshots have now driven three releases. Windows and Linux move to 3.8 for version alignment; nothing functional changed on either.
Mac v3.7 — a browser for every account August 2026
- Right-click an account → "Open Browser". Why this exists: Anthropic's Claude-in-Chrome extension only pairs with a Claude window when the browser profile and that window are signed in to the same account — Anthropic verifies it on its servers, so no launcher can bridge it (and none should). The working setup is one Chrome profile per account, and that is now one click: the first use explains all of this, lists your existing Chrome profiles, or creates a fresh one named after the account. Sign that profile in to claude.ai once, install the Claude extension there once, and the pairing works for that account from then on.
- Own Deck Test? Connect it to any account in one click. Deck Test is our own browser bridge — your Claude drives a real Chrome through our connection, no Anthropic pairing involved, so it works the same from every account. "Connect Deck Test…" copies the connection your Main Claude already has into the account you choose — your other settings are preserved, a timestamped backup is made first, a file that can't be read as JSON refuses rather than guesses, and it asks you to quit that account's window first because Claude rewrites its own settings file while it runs. Don't own Deck Test? The same menu just shows where to get it ($29 once).
- Built on a customer's report that the extension "doesn't work" from a second account — it couldn't, and now the app explains why and sets up the thing that does. Windows and Linux move to 3.7 for version alignment; nothing functional changed on either.
Mac v3.6 — when Claude's own update looks stuck August 2026
- The confusing morning this fixes: Claude downloads its updates in the background but only installs one after every Claude window has quit. With one session busy on a long task, the update just waits — for hours if it must — while a window that quit early comes back on the old version saying "update not completed". It looks like one account is blocking another. Nothing is stuck and nothing is lost — but nothing on screen said so.
- Now the app says so. The moment an update is parked, a banner names the version that's waiting, says plainly that your open sessions keep working exactly as they are, and tells you the one real move: quit all Claude windows once, give it ~10 seconds, then one click reopens your accounts.
- A real bug of ours, fixed: the Reopen button used to treat "Claude's updater is running" as "installing right now" and refused to work for the entire wait — exactly when you'd want it. It now declines only during the actual ten-second install. For support there's also a one-line diagnostic:
--updater-status.
- Second release built on reports from the same customer — both times with screenshots that named the trigger. That's what gets bugs fixed. Windows and Linux move to 3.6 for alignment only.
Windows v3.5 August 2026
- A pasted or cached path must actually BE claude.exe. Field case: the paste-a-path step once cached "Claude Setup.exe" — the installer — and from then on every account-open re-ran Claude's setup, which looked like "Claude is downloading" and then landed in the wrong account. The cache now heals itself, the paste step refuses installers, and the text launcher asks the graphical launcher's finder (which can also see a Microsoft Store install) before it ever asks a human.
Windows v3.4 — updates are one click August 2026
- Press U and the launcher updates itself — downloaded through your own receipt entitlement, and applied only after the release's cryptographic signature and every file hash verify. Anything fails to check out → nothing on your machine is touched and you're pointed at the normal download page. It can never install anything older than what you have, and backups of the replaced files are kept next to the launcher.
- Still no telemetry: the check is a plain read of a static file that is identical for everyone; the update comes through your own download link.
Windows v3.3 August 2026
- The Windows launcher finally tells you when an update exists. The Mac app had quietly done this for months; on Windows the only way to learn about a release was an email. Once a day the launcher reads the same public version file our website serves and shows one line in the menu when something newer is out. Nothing about you or your machine is sent.
Windows v3.2 August 2026
- An abandoned sign-in no longer blocks the next account. Only one account can be waiting for a browser sign-in at a time, and a half-finished earlier attempt used to hold that slot for a full 20 minutes — so adding an account opened fine, but signing in dropped you into the account you already had. The slot is now taken over automatically the moment the account holding it is no longer really waiting. A sign-in that is still waiting keeps its protection.
- Every launch is now verified. After opening an account, the launcher confirms a Claude really is running on that account's own profile — and if not, tells you plainly what happened and what to send us, instead of you finding out by landing in the wrong account. Found by a customer's precise report; free update, as always.
v3.1 — Mac and Windows August 2026
- A Claude Code terminal is now really the account you picked. If you have
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY set — ordinary for anyone who has ever used the API — Claude Code uses it instead of the account you signed in as. Anthropic documents it as overriding your subscription even when you are logged in. So every account was quietly running, and billing, as that one identity, which is exactly the separation you bought this for. Sessions opened from Claude Accounts now clear it first — along with ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, ANTHROPIC_PROFILE, ANTHROPIC_FEDERATION_RULE_ID, ANTHROPIC_ORGANIZATION_ID and ANTHROPIC_WORKSPACE_ID — and tell you when they did. Your own shell is left exactly as it was.
- Settings that pick an endpoint are deliberately left alone.
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and the Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry settings choose infrastructure, not who you are, and they normally apply to every account alike — clearing them would break a company gateway outright. They are reported, never changed.
- Windows: the sign-in helper hands
claude:// back when it is finished. It used to take the sign-in link and keep it. On most installs Claude took it back by itself the next time it started, but not on every kind of install — and if it kept it, later sign-in links could stop working with no explanation. It now restores exactly what was there before, as soon as the sign-in it was waiting for is done.
- Windows: on a locked-down work PC it now says so instead of failing silently. Where company policy restricts PowerShell, the helper could never have completed a sign-in — but it still took the link, so sign-ins vanished with no error at all. It now declines to take it and tells you plainly that sign-in will open your normal Claude window: sign in there once and the account stays signed in.
- Linux, in beta. Ubuntu 22.04+ and Debian 12+ (x86-64) — the same per-account isolation as Mac and Windows, included in the same purchase. Verified against Claude Desktop for Linux with two accounts signed in and running at once, each writing to its own profile, with your default Claude profile untouched. One honest limitation: there is no sign-in helper on Linux yet. The system hands a
claude:// sign-in link to Claude's default window rather than the account you started it from, so sign in to one account at a time with the others closed — it only affects the first sign-in for each account.
- macOS moves to 3.1 — its first update since 2.9, with the same credential fix.
Windows v3.0 August 2026
- Works with the packaged (MSIX / Microsoft Store) Claude for Windows. Claude for Windows is now shipped as a Windows package rather than a plain installer, which puts it somewhere no previous version of Claude Accounts looked — so on a current Claude install the launcher reported "Claude for Windows was not found". This is the whole reason to update.
- Pasting the path in by hand never could have fixed it, and now nobody has to. A packaged app cannot be started by running its
.exe: that starts a process with no package identity, which closes again immediately. So the old escape hatch accepted your path and then appeared to do nothing at all. v3.0 finds the package, resolves it, and starts it the way Windows intends — with your per-account --user-data-dir intact, which is the part that makes separate accounts work at all.
- Both installs on one PC? The old-style folder is still preferred, so nothing changes for anyone it already works for. If Claude no longer starts from it, remove that folder and the packaged install is used instead.
- New: press [T] in the text launcher for a self-test. It prints which Claude was found and whether it is the classic or the packaged install. If a launch ever does nothing, that one line is the fastest way for us to help.
- Found by a customer who diagnosed it correctly himself, down to the reason the manual path fallback couldn't work. Free update, as always — re-download from your receipt link.
Mac v2.9 · Windows v2.9 August 2026
- Your accounts no longer get mixed up when Claude updates itself. Claude's own updater closes the app and restarts it without the account it was opened for, so a window could come back signed in as Main — and because Claude Accounts worked out each window's account from the command line it was launched with, it then labelled that window wrongly. It now reads the profile each running window actually has open, so a window is never labelled with an account it isn't using. If it genuinely can't tell, it says so instead of guessing. Reported by a customer, who also identified the trigger.
- One click to put your accounts back (Mac): after Claude replaces itself you get a banner explaining what happened and a button that reopens exactly the accounts the update closed, each pinned to its own profile again. It deliberately doesn't close the window the updater left on Main — that might be your real Main window with a half-typed message or a sign-in in progress.
- Re-opening an account can no longer start a second copy on it (Windows): when the command line no longer carries the account, it is resolved from the running window's own child processes instead. Two Claude windows on one profile is how a profile gets corrupted, so this one matters even though you never see it working.
- Rename and Remove now refuse to touch a profile they can't prove is closed (Mac), instead of trusting a command line that an update may have thrown away. They fail safe: if they can't tell, they stop and say so.
- Warns when two windows end up on your Main account (Mac) — the normal state after Claude updates itself, which previously just looked like a duplicate icon in the Dock.
- New support switch:
--which on Mac and -Which on Windows print which account each open Claude window is really using. If a window ever looks like the wrong account, run that and send us the output.
- Documented, not fixed: the first in-app Claude Code / Cowork session inside a new account has to download and unpack its own workspace before it can start. Nothing is shared between accounts and there's no progress bar, which is why "Starting session…" can sit there a long time on the very first run. It isn't frozen, and it isn't the launcher — that's Claude Desktop provisioning itself. Leave it running once and it's done. Also from a customer report.
- Free update, as always — re-download from your receipt link.
Mac v2.8 · Windows v2.8 August 2026
- Claude Code terminals, per account. Any of your accounts can open a terminal running Claude Code as that account — its own login, history and settings, running side by side with your other accounts. On the Mac it's on each account row and in the new menu-bar quick switcher; on Windows press [C] in the text launcher or the "Code…" button in the graphical one.
- Mac: one-click actions on every account row, live running indicators, a first-run walkthrough, and a menu-bar quick switcher that sits alongside the window.
- Windows: the graphical picker marks running accounts with *, and both launchers gained the Claude Code option.
- Two honest notes: the terminal side needs Claude Code installed, and the first session per account asks you to log in once — it sticks after that. The VS Code extension isn't covered.
Windows v2.7 July 2026
- Sign-in routing now works from BOTH launchers. v2.6's fix only lived in the graphical launcher — if you used the text menu ("Claude Accounts.bat") out of habit, a company/Google/email-link sign-in could still land in your normal Claude window. The text menu now hands each launch to the same routing engine automatically whenever PowerShell is available, so it no longer matters which launcher you pick. Thanks to the customer who caught it within a day.
- Fixed: long freeze after picking an account on managed work PCs. The text launcher used Windows' wmic tool to check for already-open Claude windows, which can stall for minutes on locked-down machines. That check now runs through PowerShell (fast) whenever possible.
- Better support logs. The text launcher now writes to %APPDATA%\ClaudeAccounts\launch.log too, so if anything acts up we can see exactly what happened.
- Free update, as always — re-download from your receipt link.
Windows v2.6 July 2026
- SSO / Google / email-link sign-in now works for account windows. Company sign-ins finish in your browser, and Windows used to hand the result to a new default window — so SSO work accounts could never be added. v2.6 routes each sign-in back to the account window that asked for it, automatically. Use "Claude Accounts (graphical).bat"; one sign-in at a time, within 20 minutes. Confirmed on real corporate SSO by a customer. (macOS needs no fix — it authenticates natively.)
- "main" now recognises a normally-launched Claude (opened from the Start menu or a claude:// link), so it focuses your existing window instead of risking a duplicate on the same profile. Claude Code's CLI is also claude.exe and no longer confuses it.
- Fixed: the no-PowerShell launcher could refuse to open a second account while any Claude window was open ("already open" shown wrongly). It now matches the exact profile.
- Free update, as always — re-download from your receipt link.
Mac v2.6 · Windows v2.5 July 2026
- Never opens the same account twice (Windows): opening an already-running account now tells you to switch to it instead of risking a duplicate window on the same profile.
- Update notifications (Mac): a small green row appears when a free update is out — one anonymous check of a static file per day, nothing more.
- Finds Claude wherever it lives (Mac): moved or reinstalled Claude? The app now locates it automatically instead of assuming /Applications.
- Safer account removal (Mac): the app now waits for the account's window to fully close before moving its folder to the Trash.
- Optional one-click window switching (Mac): allow Accessibility once and switching raises exactly the window you clicked, leaving the others side by side.
- Account names are cleaned the same way on every platform, launch errors are shown instead of failing silently, and dozens of small reliability fixes.
Mac v2.5 July 2026
- Reliable window switching: clicking Main (or any account) while another window was open sometimes did nothing — switching now always brings the right window to the front.
Mac v2.1–2.4 · Windows v2.4 July 2026
- "Main" always opens your real main account: it's now pinned to Claude's own default profile, exactly the way added accounts are pinned to theirs.
- Notarized by Apple: the Mac app opens with no security warnings.
Windows v2.3 June 2026
- Finds Claude for Windows no matter where it's installed — any folder layout, the registry, the running process — and as a last resort lets you point to it once (remembered forever). No more false "Claude was not found".
Windows v2.2 June 2026
- Works on locked-down work PCs: a pure-cmd launcher that needs no PowerShell at all — for machines where company policy blocks scripts (the "black window flash" fix).
v2.0 June 2026
- The native Mac app: account list with live running indicators, add / rename / remove / reveal, one window per account.