How Claude remembers your computer: analyzing local identifiers and resetting them with a script

The author explores device identification mechanisms in Claude Desktop and Claude Code. It turns out the service uses local identifiers stored on the disk even after logging out, allowing the system to recognize the machine independently of the user account. The article details how these tags are generated by analyzing app.asar code and CLI binaries. The author explains why simply deleting application folders does not always ensure a clean slate and provides a PowerShell script to reset local identifiers to a 'first-run' state. This solution allows users to reset device binding while keeping chat history intact. The article is valuable for those concerned about privacy who want to better understand how modern LLM clients track user machines at the operating system level.