Appendix A — Windows notes

Everything in this book works on Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) and Windows 11. Most of it works exactly as on a Mac, because you’re typing plain-English prompts and the agent deals with the operating system. This appendix collects the few places where Windows differs, so chapters can point here instead of repeating themselves.

You want to…	On Windows	Section
Find your Documents folder and its full path	File Explorer; it may be inside OneDrive	Documents
See .html, .md, .csv at the end of file names	Turn on File name extensions	Extensions
See folders like .claude	Turn on Hidden items	Extensions
Type a command	PowerShell, not CMD	PowerShell
Open a web page the agent made	Double-click it, or Open with	Opening HTML
Use git (Chapter 7 only)	Git for Windows, optional; mind OneDrive	Git

Table A.1: Where Windows differs.

A.1 Documents, and a folder’s full path

Your Documents folder is in File Explorer’s left-hand pane, under This PC or your name. On many institution-managed laptops, OneDrive has taken it over, so the real location is:

Documents is…	Full path
Local	C:\Users\<you>\Documents
In OneDrive	C:\Users\<you>\OneDrive\Documents (sometimes OneDrive - <institution>)

Table A.2: Where Documents usually lives on Windows.

Either is fine for this book. To see which you have, open the folder in File Explorer and click once in the address bar at the top: it switches from a breadcrumb trail to the full path, which you can copy. You can also right-click a file or folder while holding Shift and choose Copy as path.

The simplest check is the one from Setup: ask the agent “What folder are you in?” It will print the full path.

In PowerShell, this goes to your workshop folder wherever Documents is, OneDrive or not:

cd (Join-Path ([Environment]::GetFolderPath('MyDocuments')) agents-workshop)

Windows paths use backslashes (C:\Users\...); Macs use forward slashes. You don’t need to translate: type paths either way in a prompt and the agent will cope.

A.2 File name extensions and hidden files

By default, File Explorer hides the end of file names, so index.html shows as just index, and SKILL.md as SKILL. This book talks about files by their full names, so turn extensions on:

• Windows 11: in File Explorer, View → Show → File name extensions.
• Windows 10: in File Explorer, the View tab, then tick File name extensions.

In the same menu, Hidden items shows files and folders whose names start with a dot, such as .claude, where Claude Code keeps skills and settings for a project (Chapter 4). Turn it on too.

WarningA file called notes.txt.txt

With extensions hidden, a file you save as notes.txt from Notepad can end up as notes.txt.txt, and a file the agent made called AGENTS.md looks like a file called AGENTS. If a file “isn’t there” when the agent says it is, turn extensions on first.

A.3 PowerShell versus CMD

You only need a terminal if you use the claude command rather than the desktop app. Windows has two, and they take different commands. Use PowerShell for every command in this book: the installer, cd, claude, claude mcp add in Chapter 5, and winget. Commands shown in grey boxes for Windows are PowerShell commands.

	PowerShell	CMD (Command Prompt)
How to open	Win + X, then Windows PowerShell or Terminal	Start menu, “cmd”
The prompt looks like	PS C:\Users\you>	C:\Users\you> (no PS)
Use it for this book?	Yes	Only if told to

Table A.3: Telling PowerShell from CMD.

The install command in Setup, irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex, is for PowerShell. If you see 'irm' is not recognized, you’re in CMD: close it and open PowerShell. If claude itself is “not recognized” after installing, the install folder isn’t on your PATH yet; the fix is in Claude Code’s terminal guide. Close PowerShell and open a new window after applying it. You don’t need to run PowerShell as Administrator.

If Windows offers Windows PowerShell (x86), don’t pick it: Claude Code needs the 64-bit one, without “(x86)” in the name.

NoteWSL

If you already use WSL (Linux inside Windows), you can run Claude Code there instead. You don’t need to for this book, and plugins aren’t available in WSL sessions of the desktop app, which matters for Chapter 5. If in doubt, use native Windows.

A.4 Opening a web page the agent made

Several chapters end with an .html file: a small web page or app that runs entirely in your browser. To open one, double-click it in File Explorer. It opens in your default browser, usually Edge on Windows.

To choose the browser, right-click the file and pick Open with, then Chrome or Edge. Both are fine. The PeakPeek example in Chapter 6 was tested in Chrome.

The address bar will show something like file:///C:/Users/you/Documents/.... That’s expected: the page is reading from your disk, not the internet.

A.5 Git for Windows (optional)

Nothing before Chapter 7 needs git. That chapter uses it for version control, and offers a way round if you can’t install it.

Having Git for Windows installed also changes one thing about Claude Code: with it, the agent runs commands through Git Bash (the same kind of shell as on a Mac); without it, the agent uses PowerShell. Either works for this book, and you won’t need to learn Git Bash yourself.

To install it, either download the installer from git-scm.com/install/windows and accept the defaults on every screen, or, in PowerShell:

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

Then close and reopen the desktop app or PowerShell, so it finds git.

Or let the agent do it:

Check whether git is installed. If not, tell me how to install Git for Windows
on this computer, and wait for me to say go before running anything.

On an institution-managed laptop, installing software may be blocked. That’s fine: skip it, and use the no-git route in Chapter 7.

WarningGit and OneDrive don’t mix well

OneDrive syncs files while git is writing them, and the two can clash, leaving a project’s history damaged. If your Documents is in OneDrive, either pause OneDrive syncing while you work (from the OneDrive icon in the taskbar), or keep the project in a folder outside OneDrive, such as C:\Users\<you>\agents-workshop, as Chapter 7 suggests.

Line endings. Windows and Macs end lines in text files differently, and Git sometimes prints warnings about LF and CRLF. You can ignore them for everything in this book.

A.6 If something else goes wrong

Paste the exact error into a session and ask the agent what it means. For install problems, Claude Code’s troubleshooting guide matches error messages to fixes.