Codex Desktop (Windows) 26.506.3741.0 — process exits silently ~4s after launch, no window, no logs

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

26.506.3741.0 (cannot open About dialog — app crashes before window appears; version taken from MSIX package: OpenAI.Codex_26.506.3741.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0)

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.19045.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop fails to launch after today's update.

When launched from a direct .exe path (e.g. older shortcut/pin), Windows shows the dialog:
"C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.506.3741.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\Codex.exe
The application is exiting and cannot service this request."

When launched the correct way via Store activation (shell:AppsFolder\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App), no dialog appears but no window ever appears either. Process tracing shows:

• PID #1 spawns, lives ~4–5 seconds, peaks at ~9.3–9.4 MB private memory, MainWindowTitle stays empty, then exits
• PID #2 spawns automatically ~1 second later, identical behavior, exits ~4s in
• No further retries

No log files are written anywhere under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Codex\Logs\ (last log dir is 2026/05/13 — none for today despite many launch attempts).
No new files written under %APPDATA%\Codex\.
No Crashpad dumps generated (only metadata + settings.dat present, both pre-existing).
ELECTRON_ENABLE_LOGGING=1 and ELECTRON_ENABLE_STACK_DUMPING=1 set at User scope and explorer.exe restarted — still no logs produced.

Memory pegged at ~9 MB strongly suggests the process dies before Electron main initialization completes (before app.whenReady() in Electron terms).

Worked normally yesterday (2026-05-13). Codex.exe in WindowsApps is timestamped 2026-05-14 13:35 — an automatic Microsoft Store update that day. Last successful sentry session.json shows previous release tag codex@26.506.31421.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Have Codex Desktop installed via Microsoft Store on Windows 10 22H2 (10.0.19045).
2. Receive automatic Store update to OpenAI.Codex 26.506.3741.0 (staged 2026-05-14 13:35 UTC+8).
3. Launch Codex by any means: Start menu, taskbar pin, or shell:AppsFolder\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App.
4. Observe Codex.exe spawns and exits ~4s later without showing a window.
5. Second Codex.exe spawns automatically and dies the same way.

Reproduced consistently across 8+ launch attempts. Not session/conversation specific — happens before any conversation is loaded.

No session ID applicable (app never reaches a session). The standalone CLI binary shipped alongside (C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin\codex.exe, codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5) runs fine — only the Electron desktop app is broken.

Things tried that did NOT fix it:

• Microsoft Store: Terminate → Repair → Reset → Uninstall + Reinstall
• Reboot
• Re-register AppX: Add-AppxPackage -Register -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown on AppXManifest.xml (succeeded, no effect)
• Killed stale extension-host.exe (PID was running from a previous session)
• Moved entire %APPDATA%\Codex\ + %LOCALAPPDATA%\Codex\ aside (fresh Electron profile) — same crash
• Moved state_5.sqlite, .codex-global-state.json (+ .bak), session_index.jsonl, cap_sid, installation_id, models_cache.json aside — same crash
• Moved config.toml aside — same crash
• Verified WebView2 Evergreen Runtime installed (148.0.3967.54)
• Verified no Windows Defender quarantine / threat detections
• Verified no Code Integrity / AppLocker / WDAC blocks
• Verified Get-AppxPackage OpenAI.Codex returns Status=Ok
• Verified resources/app.asar, locales/, all DLLs present in app folder

Crash is upstream of all user data and config — it's in the new build itself.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop opens to the main window as it did on 2026-05-13 (previous release tag codex@26.506.31421 per sentry session record).

Additional information

Electron version (from app/version file): 41.2.0

App folder file integrity check (all present, all dated 2026-05-14 13:33–13:39):
Codex.exe (222 MB), resources/app.asar (130 MB), resources/codex.exe (235 MB), resources/node.exe (87 MB), resources/codex-command-runner.exe, resources/codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe, locales/*.pak, snapshot_blob.bin, v8_context_snapshot.bin, ffmpeg.dll, vulkan-1.dll, libEGL.dll, libGLESv2.dll, d3dcompiler_47.dll, dxcompiler.dll, dxil.dll, vk_swiftshader.dll, icudtl.dat — none missing.

Last sentry session captured before regression (from %APPDATA%\Codex\sentry\session.json):
{
"sid": "5a3051af8af44ee58f731993015f5041",
"init": false,
"errors": 1,
"duration": 844.12,
"started": 1778632720.59,
"release": "codex@26.506.31421",
"environment": "prod",
"userAgent": "Node.js/24"
}

No relevant Windows Event Log entries (Application, System, AppXDeployment, AppxPackaging, TWinUI, CodeIntegrity, Defender Operational) for Codex during the failed launch windows.