Codex Desktop (Windows Store/MSIX) crashes on every launch — v26.608 and v26.609

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

26.609.30741

What subscription do you have?

pro

What platform is your computer?

_No response_

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop (Windows Store/MSIX) crashes on every launch — v26.608 and v26.609

Environment: Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.8655), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, dual AMD GPU
(Radeon RX 6400 + Radeon Pro WX 3100). Electron/Chromium 149. Logged in via ChatGPT.

Symptom: App exits ~1s after launch, no window. Crashpad minidump every time.
Unhandled C++ exception (0xE06D7363) during main-process startup (chrome.dll), right
after "Launching app" / "Appshot hotkey inactive". A logged error appears first:
[sparkle] Failed to set up updater: "process package ID is missing"
(at initializeWindowsUpdater).

Started immediately after auto-update to 26.608 on 2026-06-11; 26.609 has the same crash.

Ruled out locally: clearing ~/.codex, Reset-AppxPackage, package re-register,
disabling the updater (CODEX_SPARKLE_ENABLED=false — crash just moves to better_sqlite3.node),
--disable-gpu, Smart App Control (off), Memory Integrity (off).

Key signal: crashes only when launched WITH MSIX package identity (Start menu / AUMID).
Launching app\Codex.exe directly (no package identity) does NOT crash and proceeds to
app-server init. Appears to be a packaged/identity-context startup bug on Windows 25H2.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

What happens: Codex Desktop (MS Store / MSIX) crashes ~1 second after launch,
before any window appears. 100% reproducible. Appears to be the same root cause as
#27506 / #27722 (non-ASCII Windows user-profile path → CP949 →
__char_to_wide: Illegal byte sequence → unhandled C++ exception 0xE06D7363).

Steps to reproduce

1. Use a Windows account whose username / profile path contains non-ASCII (Korean)

characters — mine is C:\Users\민지.

1. Install / auto-update Codex Desktop from the Microsoft Store

(26.608.1337.0 → 26.609.3341.0).

1. Launch it from the Start menu (or codex app).
2. The process starts, writes a Crashpad minidump, and exits ~1 s later.

No window ever appears.

Crash details

• Exception 0xE06D7363 (MSVC C++) in the main process (chrome.dll), right after the

log lines Launching app → Appshot hotkey inactive.

• Crash stack includes windows-updater.node; after disabling the updater

(CODEX_SPARKLE_ENABLED=false) the crash simply moves to better_sqlite3.node,
i.e. multiple native modules mishandle the non-ASCII path.

• Launching app\Codex.exe directly without MSIX package identity does not

crash (it reaches app-server init) — consistent with the profile-path theory.

Environment

• Codex Desktop 26.609.3341.0 (also crashed on 26.608.1337.0); CLI codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5
• Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.8655), locale ko-KR, system code page CP949 (949)
• Crashpad dumps: …\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Roaming\Codex\web\Codex\Crashpad\reports\*.dmp

Ruled out (each still crashed): clearing ~/.codex, Reset-AppxPackage, re-register
package, disabling the updater, --disable-gpu, disabling Computer Use.
Smart App Control and Memory Integrity are both Off.

Session id / token usage / context window: N/A — the crash happens before any session starts.

Likely duplicate of #27506 and #27722.

What is the expected behavior?

_No response_

Additional information

_No response_