failed to spawn codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe: program not found
Open 💬 5 comments Opened May 17, 2026 by dfischer
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor)
responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.
What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?
26.513.40821
What subscription do you have?
Pro
What platform is your computer?
Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
What issue are you seeing?
Something got installed yesterday 5/16/26 either a windows update and or the codex app and what was otherwise a successful installation turned all of the sudden into an endless loop of the app asking for sandbox setup.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019e37bb-da5e-73b0-b4f7-ce61b574f592
What is the expected behavior?
That the request for sandbox setup is complete after clicking the button.
Additional information
_No response_
5 Comments
Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.
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setup refresh: failed to spawn codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe: program not found in sandbox logs
Copying files from:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.513.4821.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resourcestoC:\Users\arach\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\binfixed the issue (I think). So for some reason updating the app didn't update the areas its being called. I noticed what was atC:\Users\arach\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\binhad older files compared to the newer ones in the installed windows app store location.ask codex to list envs within sandbox,resulting .codex\packages\standalone\releases\0.139.0-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\codex-path but not codex-resources which include codex-windows-sandbox-setup.
so moveing codex-windows-sandbox-setup from codex-resources to bin works.
I can reproduce this on Codex Desktop for Windows.
The setup helper itself is present and succeeds when spawned by an absolute path:
C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin\<hash>\codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exeThe sandbox log reports:
However, the filesystem helper later starts from:
C:\Users\<redacted>\.codex\.sandbox-bin\codex.exe --codex-run-as-fs-helperand then tries to spawn the helper using only the bare filename:
So this looks like a helper-path propagation/resolution bug in the sandbox child process, not a genuinely missing executable.
The same log also shows WindowsApps and AppData runtime locations being used in the same session, plus repeated: