Windows: Browser, Computer Use, Chrome, and workspace dependencies unavailable since first install

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

OpenAI.Codex 26.608.1337.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Pro account. Curated marketplace plugins are available and installable.

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Home/Core, Windows build 10.0.26200, x64

What issue are you seeing?

Since the very first install of Codex on this computer, the bundled/default Codex capabilities have not been available:

• Browser
• Computer Use
• Chrome
• bundled workspace dependencies

This was not a regression after an update on this machine; it has never worked on this computer. Another laptop on the same account has Browser, Computer Use, document editing, and Chrome working normally.

The curated remote plugin marketplace works: after installing the GitHub plugin, I can include @github in a thread. The failure appears isolated to the bundled/default local capability path, not the curated marketplace generally.

Settings / Diagnose eventually recommends sending feedback.

In-app feedback ID:

019eb4d2-764c-70b2-838f-615bb0bdd1f6

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Install Codex Desktop on this Windows 11 Home/Core computer.
2. Sign in with ChatGPT.
3. Open a workspace/thread.
4. Click the + plugin/tool menu.
5. Observe that Browser, Computer Use, and Chrome are not available.
6. Go to the workspace dependency / diagnose area.
7. Attempt to install or repair workspace dependencies.
8. It reaches setup / preparing workspace behavior and returns to not installed or recommends sending feedback.

What I already tried

Multiple local repair attempts have not helped:

• Quit and restarted Codex repeatedly.
• Signed out/in and rechecked account state.
• Installed Codex Beta, then returned to stable.
• Uninstalled and reinstalled Codex multiple times.
• Deleted/reset Codex app-directory/tool caches.
• Cleared regenerated app-directory caches and forced a refetch.
• Manually repaired local runtime files after discovering Windows/AppX relocation issues.
• Manually installed/registered the primary runtime marketplace and default document plugins.

Despite those attempts, Browser / Computer Use / Chrome and bundled workspace dependencies remain unavailable.

Local diagnostics

Curated plugins work:

• github@openai-curated installs and can be included in a conversation.

Feature flags are enabled locally:

• browser_use = true
• browser_use_external = true
• computer_use = true
• in_app_browser = true
• workspace_dependencies = true

Primary runtime is present and marked ready:

• Runtime path exists: C:\Users\Ronald\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\codex-primary-runtime
• electron:onboarding-primary-runtime-install-ready = true

OpenAI primary runtime plugins are installed/enabled locally:

• documents@openai-primary-runtime
• spreadsheets@openai-primary-runtime
• presentations@openai-primary-runtime

But the bundled workspace dependency loader still reports:

No bundled workspace runtime dependencies are configured yet.

After deleting the app directory/tool caches and restarting, Codex regenerated the app-directory cache, but it still contained:

total apps/connectors = 1507
accessible = 0

Relevant regenerated cache path:

C:\Users\Ronald\.codex\cache\codex_app_directory\bfa3c718132f9397af5e21d35bc57b5b3a71bbff.json

Earlier local install issue discovered

On this Windows Home/Core machine, Codex initially failed to relocate bundled executables from the encrypted MSIX/AppX package resources under C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\... into C:\Users\Ronald\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\bin.

Manual copy attempts produced a Windows error like:

The specified file could not be encrypted.

After manually copying/extracting the local runtime files, codex doctor reports local install/auth/network OK, and the primary runtime can be found locally. However, the bundled/default capabilities are still unavailable.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should expose Browser, Computer Use, Chrome, and workspace dependencies when they are supported for the signed-in account/workspace/platform.

If these features are unavailable because of account/workspace/region/platform gating, the app should show a specific reason. It should not present this as a local dependency install problem when the curated plugin marketplace works and the regenerated app-directory cache still returns zero accessible apps/connectors.

Additional information

This looks related to issues where the curated marketplace works but bundled/default capabilities do not, such as missing openai-bundled / Browser / Computer Use / Chrome availability on Windows. The important distinction here is that the problem has existed since first install on this computer and survived uninstall/reinstall/cache-reset attempts.