Windows MCP servers failing to launch? A space in Node's default path is why

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MCP servers on Windows often fail to start silently or throw a 'C:\Program is not recognized' error when configured in clients like Claude Desktop. The root cause is that Node.js installs by default into C:\Program Files\nodejs, a path containing a space that cmd.exe splits on when spawning stdio server processes. Because quoting the path in the config does not reliably prevent cmd.exe from mishandling it, the recommended fix is to use Windows' legacy 8.3 short-path alias — replacing 'C:\Program Files\nodejs' with 'C:\PROGRA~1\nodejs' in the command field. Users can find the correct short path by running 'dir /x C:\' in a command prompt or querying it via PowerShell's FileSystemObject. On systems where 8.3 short names are disabled, alternatives include keeping npx on the system PATH, using node.exe's full path directly, or routing the command through cmd with npx passed as an argument.

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