Codex Desktop permanently crashes after Browser Annotation on Windows account with non-ASCII username (chrome.dll / V8 exception)

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

26.609.4994.0 (Microsoft Store version)

What subscription do you have?

Free

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop (Microsoft Store version) worked normally for approximately 5 days.

After using the Browser Annotation feature once, the application crashed and has never launched successfully again under the affected Windows account.

Current behavior:

• Click Codex icon
• Loading spinner appears briefly (~0.5–1 second)
• No window is displayed
• Process exits silently

The issue persists after:

• Repair
• Reset
• Uninstall/Reinstall
• Deleting all known Codex user data
• Deleting AppX package data

A separate Windows account with an ASCII-only username can launch the same Codex Desktop version on the same machine without any issues.

Crash dump analysis consistently points to chrome.dll and V8 internals, with the process terminating via:

0xE06D7363 (Microsoft C++ Exception)

WinDbg reports:

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:
CPP_EXCEPTION_e06d7363_chrome.dll!Unknown

An earlier error was observed while using DeepSeek through CCSwitch:

HTTP 400
unknown variant 'image_url', expected 'text'

However, extensive testing suggests that this error is unrelated to the startup crash because the application continues to fail even after all session and application data are removed.

CodexDesktop-Crash-Report-NonASCII-Username-20260614.md

WinDbg-Crash-Analysis-CodexDesktop-20260614.md

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Launch Codex Desktop (Microsoft Store version) on a Windows account whose profile path contains non-ASCII characters.

1. Use Codex normally. In my case, the application worked correctly for approximately 5 days.

1. Open the Browser feature and use Browser Annotation (screenshot/annotation workflow).

1. During or shortly after the annotation workflow, the application crashes.

1. Attempt to relaunch Codex Desktop.

Observed result:

• Loading spinner appears briefly (~0.5–1 second)
• No UI is displayed
• Process exits silently

Expected result:

• Codex Desktop launches normally and restores the previous session.

Additional notes:

• The issue became permanent after the initial crash.
• Repair, Reset, Uninstall/Reinstall, and clearing all known Codex data did not resolve the issue.
• The same Codex version launches successfully on the same machine under a Windows account with an ASCII-only username.
• Codex CLI and the VS Code Codex extension continue to function normally.

Session ID: Unknown (application can no longer launch).

Token usage: Unknown.

Context window usage: Unknown.

At the time of the original incident, a DeepSeek model was being used through CCSwitch. An error was displayed:

HTTP 400: unknown variant 'image_url', expected 'text'

However, subsequent testing suggests the startup crash is independent of this error because the application continues to crash after all user and application data have been removed.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex Desktop should launch successfully and display its main window.

After using Browser Annotation, the application should either:

• continue running normally, or
• recover gracefully from any internal error without becoming permanently unusable.

After restarting the application, Codex Desktop should restore the previous session or start a new session normally instead of exiting silently.

The application should behave consistently regardless of whether the Windows user profile path contains ASCII or non-ASCII characters.

Additional information

_No response_