Windows desktop notification click opens invalid WindowsApps path with type=click query

Open 💬 13 comments Opened May 30, 2026 by natebeeman

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Summary

On Windows, Codex desktop turn-complete notifications can trigger an Electron launch error when the notification is clicked/opened. The error dialog shows Windows/Electron trying to launch a path under C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527.3686.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\... with notification click metadata appended, e.g. ?type=click&tag=..., and then reports that the Electron app/module cannot be found.

Disabling Windows notifications for the Codex app stopped the error immediately, which points to the desktop notification activation path rather than the CLI notify hook.

Environment

OS: Windows
Codex desktop package observed in logs: OpenAI.Codex_26.527.3686.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
App-server version reported in logs: 0.135.0-alpha.1
Codex desktop build flavor: prod
Approx observed time: 2026-05-29 evening Pacific / 2026-05-30 UTC

Repro steps

Run Codex desktop on Windows.
Send a prompt and wait for the assistant turn to complete.
Codex shows a desktop notification for the completed turn.
Click/open the notification.
An Electron error dialog appears.

Observed behavior

The dialog title is Error, with heading Error launching app. It says it is unable to find the Electron app at a path shaped like:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527.3686.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\...\?type=click&tag=...

It also reports Cannot find module for the same path shape.

Relevant redacted log sequence:

[desktop-notifications] show turn-complete conversationId=<redacted> turnId=<redacted>
[desktop-notifications] forward show kind=turn-complete notificationId=turn-<redacted>
[desktop-notifications] show notification actionCount=0 kind=turn-complete notificationId=turn-<redacted>
[desktop-notifications] emit action actionId=none actionType=open notificationId=turn-<redacted>
[desktop-notifications] notification click open notificationId=turn-<redacted>
[desktop-notifications] action actionType=open conversationId=<redacted> requestId=none

There were also repeated startup lines such as:

[desktop-notifications] service starting
[computer-use-native-pipe] computer-use notify config ensure finished platform=win32 reason=missing-helper-path status=skipped

Earlier, when the notify = [...] CLI config hook existed, it was removed/disabled. The error still reproduced on desktop notification click/open events, so the issue appears to be the app's built-in notification activation handling.

Expected behavior

Clicking a Codex turn-complete notification should focus/open the existing Codex desktop window and navigate to the relevant conversation without an Electron launch error.

Workaround confirmed

Disable Windows notifications for the Codex app registry entry:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notifications\Settings\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App
Enabled = 0

After setting this, the turn-complete notification no longer appeared and the error stopped occurring.

View original on GitHub ↗

13 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 month ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

#25188
#25157

Powered by Codex Action

aoaoaoao-wu · 1 month ago

galaxywk223 · 1 month ago

Additional local reproduction evidence

The issue is reproducible on another Windows installation with the same Codex Desktop package version.

Environment

OS: Windows 11 Pro x64
OS version: 10.0.26200
Codex package: OpenAI.Codex_26.527.3686.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Codex app version: 26.527.3686.0
AppX status: Ok
AppUserModelID: OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App

Observations

Normal AppX launch works and creates Codex.exe processes.
The installed application files exist:
app\Codex.exe
app\resources\app.asar
app\resources\codex.exe
The failure is specific to Windows toast notification click activation.
The latest Codex toast notification stored by Windows Notification Platform used this launch payload:

<toast launch="type=click&amp;tag=<notification-tag>" scenario="reminder">

Clicking the notification opens the Electron error dialog with the type=click&tag=... payload appended/interpreted as part of the Electron app path:

Error launching app

Unable to find Electron app at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527...\type=click&tag=...

Cannot find module 'C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527...\type=click&tag=...'

Result

The evidence points to the Windows toast activation argument (type=click&tag=...) being passed through as an Electron app path instead of being handled as notification activation data. The main Codex app remains usable when launched normally.

selaquik · 1 month ago

Thxnks · 1 month ago

wolfgadeok · 1 month ago

brigcam · 1 month ago

I can confirm this still reproduces on Windows with Codex desktop 26.527.3686.0 / package OpenAI.Codex_26.527.3686.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0.

Additional troubleshooting data:

Re-registered the installed MSIX/AppX package with Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown -Register <AppxManifest.xml>.
The re-registration completed successfully and Codex relaunched normally.
After that, clicking a new Codex Windows notification still opens the same Electron error dialog.
The failing path shape is still the WindowsApps package path with notification activation metadata appended, for example ...?type=click&tag=4097135412003327338.

So this does not appear to be a stale/corrupt local AppX registration on this machine. It looks like the notification activation payload is still being delivered to Electron as an app/module path after a clean package re-registration.

takagibit18 · 1 month ago

I reproduced the same notification-click failure and found one additional local data point that may help narrow it down.

In %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Notifications\wpndatabase.db, Codex notifications are registered under the handler OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App.

The stored toast payloads use launch arguments in the exact shape type=click&tag=.... Some reply-capable notifications also use foreground action arguments like type=reply&tag=....

That matches the invalid Electron path shown in the dialog, where the bare activation payload appears as ...\type=click&tag=....

I also checked the installed AppX manifest. The app entrypoint is Application Id="App" Executable="app/Codex.exe" EntryPoint="Windows.FullTrustApplication", with the packaged AppX codex protocol extension declared. So this appears to be going through the packaged AppX activation path, not a traditional HKCR\codex\shell\open\command Win32 protocol command.

One more observation: at the time of the dialog, Windows AppModel logs showed a new process being created for OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App while an existing Codex desktop instance was already running. The Codex desktop log files created around that failed launch were 0 bytes, which suggests the failure occurs before the main app code has a chance to log or handle the activation.

So the likely failure point seems to be before Codex's own notification/deep-link handling, where the bare toast activation string type=click&tag=... is being passed to Electron in a way that Electron treats as an app/module path.

NemuKei · 1 month ago

Additional observation from Windows Codex Desktop 26.527.7698.0:

Package: OpenAI.Codex_26.527.7698.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
OS: Windows 10 Home, WindowsVersion reported as 2009 by PowerShell Get-ComputerInfo
Scenario: opening a side chat directly appeared to be treated as a main chat launch, then showed the Electron launch error.
Important distinction: opening the original main chat still worked, and the side chat was visible correctly from inside that main chat. The side chat content/association did not appear to be lost.

Observed dialog text shape:

Error launching app

Unable to find Electron app at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527.7698.0_...#type=click&tag=14499304364271169122

Cannot find module 'C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527.7698.0_...#type=click&tag=14499304364271169122'

This looks consistent with the activation payload #type=click&tag=... being interpreted as part of the Electron app/module path. The side-chat-specific detail is that a direct side chat entry point can trigger the same failure, while opening the parent/main chat remains a viable workaround.

davidgilbertson contributor · 1 month ago

As far as I can tell, it's actually impossible to install the Linear plugin with this bug, because it requires going to the website and then bouncing back to the app, which fails. I assume it's the same for other plugins as well.

ChinaChiao · 1 month ago

same question

ggyda · 1 month ago

I can still reproduce this on a newer Windows Codex Desktop package.

Environment:

OS: Windows x64
Codex Desktop package: OpenAI.Codex_26.527.7698.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
AppX status: Ok
AppUserModelID: OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App

Observed:
Clicking a Codex Windows notification still opens an Electron error dialog.

The dialog shows a path shaped like:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.527...\?type=click&tag=<notification-tag>

and reports:

Unable to find Electron app
Cannot find module

Troubleshooting tried:

Fully rebooted Windows
Re-registered the Codex AppX package with Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register
Confirmed the Codex app launches normally when opened directly
The issue still reproduces with fresh notifications

This still looks like the Windows toast activation payload is being interpreted as an Electron app path instead of notification activation data.

Pankozin · 1 month ago