Day 1

Install Claude Desktop on your machine, understand the 6 capabilities the web app doesn't have, configure your account, and complete a real work task that would have taken you 20 minutes manually.

Install Claude Desktop

Claude Desktop is available for macOS and Windows. The installation is straightforward — the interesting part comes after.

Step 1: Download

Go to claude.ai/download and download the version for your operating system. macOS requires 12+ (Monterey or later). Windows requires Windows 10 or later.

Step 2: Install and sign in

On macOS, drag Claude to your Applications folder. On Windows, run the installer. Sign in with your Anthropic account. If you don't have one, create a free account at claude.ai first — the Pro subscription ($20/month) unlocks higher usage limits and is worth it if you plan to use MCP seriously.

Step 3: Keyboard shortcuts to know immediately

These will save you time every single day:

Desktop vs Web: what actually changes

The web interface is a chatbot. The desktop app is something different. Here's exactly what you get that the web can't do:

MCP is the unlock. We cover it fully on Day 3. For now, understand that MCP lets Claude act on your computer — reading files, querying databases, pushing code — rather than just talking about them.

Your first real task

Don't ask Claude "what can you do?" That's a waste of your first conversation. Instead, give it a real task you'd normally do manually. Here's a good one to start:

Exercise: The 10-minute email rewrite

Find the last work email you drafted that felt too long or unclear. Paste it into Claude with this prompt:

Rewrite this email to be clearer and more direct.
Keep it under 150 words. Use plain language.
The recipient is [describe who they are].

[paste your email here]

Notice what happens: Claude produces a rewrite immediately, and you can iterate. "Make it more formal." "Add a call to action at the end." "Shorter." Each instruction refines the output. This back-and-forth is the core interaction pattern you'll use everywhere.

The conversation architecture

Every Claude Desktop conversation follows this structure:

1. Context: Tell Claude who you are and what you're working on
2. Task: Give it the specific thing to do
3. Iterate: Refine with follow-up instructions
4. Extract: Copy the output you need

The mistake most people make is stopping at step 2. The real value comes from iteration. Claude doesn't get tired. It doesn't take your edits personally. Use it.

Getting around the app

The left sidebar

Your conversation history lives here. Use ⌘ K (Mac) or Ctrl K (Windows) to search across all your past conversations — this is genuinely useful once you've been using Claude for a few weeks and need to find something you worked on.

Model selection

Claude Desktop gives you access to multiple models. For daily work, Claude Sonnet is the best balance of speed and capability. Use Claude Opus for complex reasoning tasks where you can afford to wait 10-15 seconds longer for a response. You'll find the model selector in the conversation toolbar.

Artifacts

When Claude produces structured output — a chunk of code, a long document, a table — it often places it in a separate panel called an "artifact." Think of it as a side-by-side view: your conversation on the left, the created content on the right. You can edit artifacts directly in that panel, ask Claude to update them, or copy and export them. We cover artifacts in depth on Day 4.

Complete before Day 2

Don't just read this course. Do the work.

1. Install Claude Desktop and sign in
2. Complete the email rewrite exercise with a real email
3. Have one full work conversation — something you were going to do manually today
4. Write down one thing Claude did that surprised you

Tomorrow: Projects. You'll build a persistent knowledge base that makes Claude an expert in your specific work domain.

What's Next

The foundations from today carry directly into Day 2. In the next session the focus shifts to Day 2 — building directly on everything covered here.