Windows Desktop: Computer Use fails because node_repl kernel exits with `windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh`

Summary

On Codex Desktop for Windows, Computer Use is unavailable because the node_repl kernel exits before Computer Use can initialize. The failure happens even with a minimal node_repl script, so this appears to be in the Windows sandbox / Node REPL startup path rather than the Computer Use plugin itself.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop package observed in logs: OpenAI.Codex_26.601.2237.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Computer Use plugin cache version: openai-bundled/computer-use/26.601.21317
• Node REPL path from config: .../OpenAI/Codex/bin/34ab3e1324cc55b5/node_repl.exe
• Node version from bundled runtime: v24.14.0

Steps to reproduce

1. Enable the bundled Computer Use plugin on Windows.
2. Start a Codex Desktop thread.
3. Try a minimal Node REPL call, before any Computer Use automation:

nodeRepl.write(JSON.stringify({ cwd: nodeRepl.cwd, homeDir: nodeRepl.homeDir, tmpDir: nodeRepl.tmpDir }, null, 2));

1. Try Computer Use bootstrap / sky.list_apps():

if (!globalThis.sky) {
  const { setupComputerUseRuntime } = await import("<computer-use plugin root>/scripts/computer-use-client.mjs");
  await setupComputerUseRuntime({ globals: globalThis });
}
globalThis.apps = await sky.list_apps();

Expected behavior

• node_repl starts successfully.
• Computer Use can initialize and list Windows apps.

Actual behavior

The minimal node_repl call fails before Computer Use logic runs:

node_repl kernel exited unexpectedly

node_repl diagnostics: {"kernel_pid":19564,"kernel_status":"running","kernel_stderr_tail":"windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh","reason":"stdout_eof","stream_error":null}

Earlier attempts produced the same core error with different kernel PIDs:

windows sandbox failed: spawn setup refresh

One shell command during diagnosis also surfaced:

windows sandbox: CreateProcessWithLogonW failed: 1056

Additional observations

• Google Drive / Google Calendar plugins were enabled successfully and their tools load, so this does not appear to be a general plugin installation problem.
• The Computer Use plugin files exist, including scripts/computer-use-client.mjs.
• Attempted workaround: setting node_repl args to ['--disable-sandbox'] in config.toml. This temporarily wrote successfully, but after restarting Codex / rebooting Windows, Codex rewrote the section back to args = [], so the workaround did not persist.

Relevant config section after restart:

[mcp_servers.node_repl]
args = []
command = '.../OpenAI/Codex/bin/34ab3e1324cc55b5/node_repl.exe'
startup_timeout_sec = 120

Impact

Computer Use is unusable on this Windows installation because the dependency runtime fails before any app-control call can run.