Codex Desktop (MSIX) v26.513.4821.0 — Black/blank window on Windows 11; clean reinstall + full state reset do not fix

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

26.513.4821.0 (MSIX, Microsoft Store)

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Pro 26100

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop (MSIX) v26.513.4821.0 — Black/blank window on Windows 11; clean reinstall + full state reset do not fix

Summary

The Codex Windows desktop app (MSIX package from Microsoft Store) launches but renders an entirely black window. No UI ever appears. The window frame shows the app title "Codex" but the client area stays black indefinitely. This persists through every reset/reinstall step short of a different binary.

Environment

| Item | Value |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro 26100 |
| Codex Desktop | 26.513.4821.0 (MSIX, Microsoft Store) |
| Package | OpenAI.Codex_26.513.4821.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0 |
| GPU | Intel Iris Xe Graphics |
| GPU driver | 30.0.101.1660 (note: relatively old) |
| WebView2 Runtime | 148.0.3967.70 |
| Edge | 148.0.3967.70 |
| HDR | Off |
| Antigravity (Google IDE) | Previously installed v2.0.0, fully uninstalled before testing |

Symptom

• Launching Codex from Start menu spawns ~6 Codex.exe child processes (Electron main + renderers + GPU process).
• The main window is created (visible in taskbar with title "Codex" + icon) but the entire client area is solid black.
• Taskbar live preview also shows a completely black thumbnail.
• No visible error, no splash, no spinner.
• App is functional enough to keep running indefinitely without crashing.

What I've tried (none fixed the issue)

1. Renamed Electron state/cache files to .bak

Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, DawnGraphiteCache, DawnWebGPUCache, blob_storage, Local Storage, Session Storage, Preferences under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Roaming\Codex
→ Still black.

1. Renamed the entire Roaming\Codex userData folder → Still black.

1. Reset-AppxPackage OpenAI.Codex (Windows 11 MSIX reset)

→ After reset, launch silently failed. Add-AppxPackage -Register on the manifest restored launchability, but UI still black.

1. Set ELECTRON_DISABLE_GPU=1 + ELECTRON_ENABLE_LOGGING=1 user env vars, killed all Codex processes, relaunched → Still black.

1. Full uninstall (Remove-AppxPackage) + clean reinstall via winget install --id 9PLM9XGG6VKS --source msstore

→ Same version 26.513.4821.0 redeployed, still black.

1. Removed all residue from prior Google Antigravity 2.0 install (stale uninstall reg entry, ~145 HKCU:\Software\Classes\Antigravity.* ProgID entries, dead desktop shortcut, temp installer files) → No change.

Event log

Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational repeatedly reports successful activation (Event ID 1621, exit 0):

アプリ OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App のライセンス認証を試みました。
実行状態: Attempted activation of the app、0、この操作を正しく終了しました。

No Application Error, Windows Error Reporting, or .NET Runtime events recorded for Codex around the failure window.

Suspected root cause

Either:

• (a) A renderer/Chromium issue in v26.513.4821.0 specifically (similar in spirit to the v26.422.x workspace_dependencies infinite-loop issues — #19295, #19437, #19770, #19415 — but no obvious loop visible here since state reset doesn't fix it).
• (b) GPU rendering failure with older Intel Iris Xe driver 30.0.101.1660 + newer Electron/Chromium bundled in this build. (Currently testing driver update.)
• (c) MSIX sandbox interaction with WebView2/GPU process. The ELECTRON_DISABLE_GPU env var likely isn't being inherited into the MSIX container, so we couldn't conclusively test GPU-off mode. It would help if the MSIX manifest exposed a way to launch with --disable-gpu / --disable-gpu-compositing for users hitting this.

Requested

1. Confirm/repro on v26.513.4821.0 with similar HW (Intel integrated GPU + older driver).
2. Document a supported way to pass --disable-gpu to the MSIX build (currently the disable-gpu switch is essentially unreachable on Store builds).
3. If this is the same class of bug as #19295/#19437, please link.

Related issues

• #19295 — workspace_dependencies infinite loop (white screen, earlier version)
• #19437 — workspace_dependencies infinite loop on Windows
• #19770 — same loop on 26.422.3464.0
• #20217 — stuck on logo after clean reinstall
• #22984 — 26.513.31313 thread resume error
• #45031 (anthropics/claude-code) — same MSIX-GPU-flag-limitation pattern in Claude Desktop

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Not sure but after installed antigravity2.0, codex app broke.

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

_No response_