Claude Desktop in Windows 10 was unable to get MCP working in Claude Pro

[davidacollins]

Pre-submission Checklist

• I have checked that this question would not be more appropriate as an issue in a specific repository
• I have searched existing discussions and documentation for answers

Question Category

• Protocol Specification
• SDK Usage
• Server Implementation
• General Implementation
• Documentation
• Other

Your Question

Summary provided by Claude:

Environment

• Windows 10 (Version 10.0.19045.6466)
• Claude Desktop for Windows, Version 1.9255.0
• Claude Pro account
• Node.js v24.16.0 (installed fresh during troubleshooting)
• npm installed globally via npm install -g npm

Goal
Set up the MCP Filesystem Server in Claude Desktop to give Claude read/write access to a local project folder at:
C:\Users\User\Documents\Monith Developments\Value_Stable_Title

What We Did

1. Created %APPDATA%\Claude\ folder manually (it didn't exist)
2. Created claude_desktop_config.json in that folder
3. Confirmed Node.js was installed but not in PATH — fixed by adding C:\Program Files\nodejs\ to System Environment Variables (it was actually already there; the fix was reopening Command Prompt)
4. Confirmed node --version returns v24.16.0
5. Confirmed npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem "C:\Users\User\Documents\Monith Developments\Value_Stable_Title" runs successfully and returns: Secure MCP Filesystem Server running on stdio
6. Confirmed the package is cached at: C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\npm-cache_npx\a3241bba59c344f5\node_modules@modelcontextprotocol\server-filesystem\dist\index.js
7. Confirmed running node.exe directly against the cached index.js also returns Secure MCP Filesystem Server running on stdio

Configs Tried (all failed to produce hammer icon)
Config 1 — Standard:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\Monith Developments\\Value_Stable_Title"]
    }
  }
}

Config 2 — Full path to npx.cmd:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\npx.cmd",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\Monith Developments\\Value_Stable_Title"]
    }
  }
}

Config 3 — Using cmd /c wrapper:

  "mcpServers": {
    "filesystem": {
      "command": "cmd",
      "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
        "C:\\Users\\User\\Documents\\Monith Developments\\Value_Stable_Title"]
    }
  }
}```

Config 4 — Direct node.exe with full path to cached package:

{
"mcpServers": {
"filesystem": {
"command": "C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.exe",
"args": [
"C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\npm-cache\_npx\a3241bba59c344f5\node_modules\@modelcontextprotocol\server-filesystem\dist\index.js",
"C:\Users\User\Documents\Monith Developments\Value_Stable_Title"]
}
}
}

Config 5 — With explicit APPDATA env variable:

{
"mcpServers": {
"filesystem": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem",
"C:\Users\User\Documents\Monith Developments\Value_Stable_Title"],
"env": {
"APPDATA": "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\"
}
}
}
}

**Symptoms**
- No hammer/tools icon appears in Claude Desktop chat input after any restart
- No logs folder is ever created in %APPDATA%\Claude\
- No Developer tab visible in Claude Desktop Settings
- Asking Claude to list files defaults to Google Drive instead of local filesystem
- All manual command-line tests of the server succeed without errors

**Key Observation**
The complete absence of a logs folder suggests Claude Desktop is not attempting to launch the MCP server at all, despite the config file being present and valid at C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json