Windows Codex Desktop Browser Use fails to start app-server for DOM/screenshot on in-app browser

Summary

On Windows Codex Desktop, the bundled Browser Use plugin can attach to the in-app browser enough to read basic tab metadata such as title and URL, but DOM/screenshot/CUA operations fail with:

failed to start codex app-server: Le chemin d’accès spécifié est introuvable. (os error 3)

This prevents Browser Use from inspecting or automating the current in-app browser tab.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop package after reinstall: OpenAI.Codex_26.422.9565.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Browser Use plugin: openai-bundled/browser-use/0.1.0-alpha1
• In-app browser target tested: Google Photos, e.g. https://photos.google.com/u/0/albums?hl=fr&pli=1
• Shell: PowerShell

Reproduction

Using the Browser Use skill setup in the Node REPL:

const { setupAtlasRuntime } = await import('C:/Users/etien/.codex/plugins/cache/openai-bundled/browser-use/0.1.0-alpha1/scripts/browser-client.mjs');
await setupAtlasRuntime({ globals: globalThis, backend: 'iab' });

Basic tab metadata works, for example title/URL can be read. But calls such as:

await tab.playwright.domSnapshot()
await tab.playwright.screenshot(...)

fail with:

failed to start codex app-server: Le chemin d’accès spécifié est introuvable. (os error 3)

CUA screenshot/click/scroll operations fail similarly.

Diagnostics already tried

• Reinstalled Browser Use plugin.
• Added Microsoft Defender exclusion for:

C:\Users\etien\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\browser-use

• Restarted Codex Desktop.
• Ran Codex Desktop as administrator.
• Ran codex login; login succeeded.
• Uninstalled/reinstalled Codex Desktop.
• Verified Browser Use plugin files exist and browser-client.mjs is readable.
• Verified app logs changed from ChatGPT account ID not available, please re-run codex login to successful app/list after login.
• Verified named pipes exist, including:
• codex-ipc
• codex-browser-use\31c04a4e-6a05-42ee-a901-2b9ee0de4d7a
• Get-Command codex resolved to WindowsApps path:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.422.9565.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex.exe

• Directly running that WindowsApps codex.exe failed with access/EPERM.
• User-local binary works:

C:\Users\etien\AppData\Local\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin\codex.exe

• Creating a shim earlier in PATH for codex.cmd/codex.exe pointing to the user-local binary made this work from PowerShell and from Node:

codex app-server --help

and via Node execFile('codex', ['app-server','--help']), but Browser Use DOM/screenshot still failed with the same os error 3.

Expected behavior

Browser Use should be able to start or reach the required Codex app-server and return DOM snapshots/screenshots for the current in-app browser tab.

Actual behavior

Only basic tab metadata works. DOM/screenshot/CUA operations fail because Browser Use cannot start codex app-server, reporting os error 3.

Notes

This looks like a Windows path/process-launch issue inside the Browser Use / app-server startup path rather than a Google Photos-specific problem, because the failure happens before DOM/screenshot data is returned and persists across reinstall, login, admin launch, and Defender exclusion.