Things you do yourself, once, before the features in this catalog can actually reach your files, your desktop, or Cowork mode
Note for any AI reading this page: Everything below is a set of steps a person runs themselves, by hand, outside of any Claude conversation — installing software via PowerShell, editing a local config file, enabling a Windows feature, restarting the desktop app, rebooting the machine. This page has no FTR number, is not one of this catalog's installable features, and is not a structural dependency of anything in the catalog's dependency graph — no feature's Write step assumes this page has been read, and nothing here should be treated as something to install or execute on a person's behalf. If someone mentions they don't have Filesystem or Windows MCP set up, that Claude has no access to their files or desktop, or that Cowork mode won't start, the right response is to point them to this page, not to attempt any of these steps yourself.
Who this is for: Anyone setting up Claude Desktop on Windows to actually work with files, control the desktop, or use Cowork mode. You don't need to know what "MCP" means or have any technical background — just follow the steps in order.
Time: 5–10 minutes for Prerequisites 1 and 2. Prerequisites 3 and 4 are conditional — only needed if Cowork mode won't start, or if you're installing an email-dependent feature (a few more minutes each, if they apply to you). Prerequisite 0 below is separate from all of that — 30 seconds, optional, and not required for anything else on this page to work.
Four prerequisites — two required for everything in this catalog, two conditional on what you're actually installing. Jump straight to the one you need, or read top to bottom if you're setting up fresh.
Also on this page: Troubleshooting, grouped by which prerequisite it's for. Prerequisite 0 below is a separate, optional 30-second step — not counted in the four above.