A complete guide to Claude AI Windows apps: Official vs. third-party

Claude has become a huge name in the AI world, and for good reason. It's an assistant from Anthropic that's known for being thoughtful, safe, and really good at tricky tasks. As AI becomes a bigger part of our workday, having a dedicated desktop app instead of another browser tab sounds pretty great.

However, for Windows users looking to install Claude, the landscape can be confusing. There's the official app from Anthropic, and then a whole bunch of unofficial apps on the Microsoft Store. This article aims to clarify the differences. We’ll walk through the real, official Claude AI Windows apps and compare the official app with third-party options. We’ll look at the features, security risks, and help you choose the best way to use Claude while maintaining data security.

What is Claude AI?

At its heart, Claude is a family of large language models (LLMs) created by a company called Anthropic. Their big mission is to build AI that is helpful, harmless, and honest. It’s less about just spitting out an answer and more about providing one that's well-reasoned and safe.

Claude is seriously capable. It can handle advanced reasoning, write code, whip up marketing copy, summarize long documents, and so much more. Anthropic gives you a few different models to pick from, depending on your needs. You have the heavy-hitters like Claude Sonnet 4.5 for deep analysis, and the zippy Haiku 4.5 for quick chats.

Just think of it as a super-flexible assistant that can do anything from analyzing a quarterly business report to helping you write a short story. This mix of power and safety is what's made it so popular.

The official Claude AI Windows apps from Anthropic

Claude Desktop always seems to outperform Claude Code for most of my tasks. Sure, if I'm editing the actual code to a file (which I'll usually give Claude Desktop the first pass at), then I'll use Claude Code, but Claude Desktop has proven, in my experience, that it is much better at almost everything. I have several unique MCPs that I've created with Claude Desktop, including using agents.

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The official app, straight from Anthropic, isn't just the website crammed into a window. A key feature is its ability to let Claude interact directly with your computer in ways the browser version cannot.

Key features of the official app and how extensions work

The biggest perk of the official app is its support for Desktop Extensions. This feature allows Claude to see what's on your screen, work with your local files, and even take control of other apps on your computer.

According to Anthropic's engineering blog, these extensions are essentially one-click installers for local servers (called MCP servers) that come in special ".mcpb" files. By running them, you create a secure link between Claude and your machine.

My current fave combo is sequential thinking + brave search + puppeteer = deep research/perplexity clone. I give a topic to research. Sequential thinking plans what searches it needs to do to answer the question. Brave search and puppeteer fetch and scrape the results. Then sonnet does its LLM magic and synthesises all the scraped content into a nice research report.

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This enables several capabilities:

• Quick entry: You can bring up Claude with a keyboard shortcut from anywhere on your PC, saving you from constantly switching windows.
• Local file interaction: You could ask Claude to analyze a document sitting on your desktop or have it look at a screenshot to understand what you're working on.
• Custom automation: If you're tech-savvy, you can connect Claude to local databases, code editors, or other software, making it a powerful automation partner.

Practical examples and limitations of extensions

To give you a sense of how powerful this can be, Anthropic created an experimental PyBoy extension that lets Claude play a GameBoy emulator. It's a fun example that shows just how deeply the AI can integrate with local software when it has the right tools.

However, setting up these extensions is primarily intended for developers and technical users. If you just want an AI to understand your company's internal knowledge, building a custom extension might be more technical than required.

For this type of task, other solutions may be more suitable. For instance, an AI teammate like eesel AI’s AI Internal Chat can connect directly to all your company's knowledge sources-like Confluence, Google Docs, and Slack-in just a few minutes. Your whole team can ask it questions and get instant, cited answers without any complicated setup.

Security considerations and user control

Giving an AI this level of access to your computer is a big step, and you should be careful. Anthropic is upfront that computer use is a beta feature with its own set of risks, especially if you allow it to browse the internet.

Their official security advice even suggests running Claude in a sandboxed environment, like a virtual machine, to limit any potential damage if something goes wrong. The good news for companies is that admins can manage and restrict which extensions their team can use, which adds a welcome layer of control and security.

Third-party Claude AI Windows apps

A search for Claude on the Microsoft Store reveals several options, some of which are not developed by Anthropic. These are made by third-party developers, and using them involves certain considerations.

What are these third-party apps and how do they work?

These apps are not from Anthropic. They're built by independent developers who use the official Claude API to run their own custom interfaces. A common example is an app called "Claudio - Powered by Claude:AI", published by a developer named "Chinchuliscu."

While they might offer a different design, they are basically a middleman. Your prompts and data don't go straight to Anthropic; they go through the developer's servers first.

Security and privacy drawbacks of third-party apps

The primary concern with third-party apps is data privacy, as you are providing your data to a developer other than Anthropic. When you install an app like "Claudio," it asks for some very broad permissions. We're talking about things like:

• "Uses all system resources"
• "Use your microphone"
• "Access your Internet connection"

Giving an app these permissions grants it wide-ranging access to your computer and everything on it. For personal use, that's a massive privacy risk. For business use, it is generally not advisable. You could be sending sensitive company info or customer data through an unsecured channel without even knowing it. While a different interface might be appealing, it's important to weigh the potential privacy trade-offs.

Browser vs. desktop: Choosing between Claude AI Windows apps and the web

So, what are your options? You can stick with the browser, use the official desktop app, or maybe try a different approach. Let's figure out which one is right for you.

A direct comparison of different methods

Here’s a quick breakdown of how the different ways to use Claude on Windows compare. This chart gives a high-level view of which option is best for different users.

Why businesses might skip Claude AI Windows apps altogether

For professional teams, the discussion isn't really about which Claude app to pick. The real challenge is cutting down on context switching so work can flow better. Adding another app to the mix, even an official one, usually just creates more clutter.

An alternative approach is to use an AI that works inside the tools your team already uses every day. This is where an "AI teammate" like eesel AI can be effective. Instead of configuring a tool, you "hire" eesel. It connects to your help desk, internal docs, and Slack, and learns your business in minutes.

With products like the AI Copilot, your agents get perfectly drafted replies right inside Zendesk or Freshdesk. Or, you can use an AI Agent to autonomously handle frontline support tickets. The AI becomes part of your existing workflow, not another window to manage.

Official Claude AI pricing plans

If you decide to stick with the official Claude experience, Anthropic has a few plans for its consumer product. Here’s a quick look, based on their pricing page.

For a more detailed perspective on whether the desktop app is worth it for you, this video offers a helpful review of its features and overall value.

A video reviewing the official Claude AI Windows apps, exploring whether you need the desktop version.

The verdict: Are Claude AI Windows apps right for you?

So, what's the final call? It really comes down to who you are and what you're trying to do.

• The official desktop app is a great tool for developers and technical power users who want to build custom automations and link Claude to their local machine. For many users, its advanced features may not be necessary.
• Third-party apps from the Microsoft Store are generally not recommended due to security and privacy risks, especially if you're dealing with any kind of sensitive or business information.
• For most day-to-day tasks, the standard browser version of Claude is still the simplest and safest bet.

For businesses, the main goal is to integrate AI in a way that actually helps your team get more done. Instead of adding another app to juggle, think about inviting an AI teammate to work with you in the tools you already have. See how eesel AI works inside your team's platforms to automate support, answer questions, and speed up work-no context switching needed.