Codex Desktop on Windows crashes during cua_node runtime staging when user profile path contains non-ASCII characters

What happened?

Codex Desktop from the Microsoft Store starts and then silently exits before showing a window on Windows when the Windows user profile path contains non-ASCII characters.

In this case the profile path is a Korean username path, anonymized here as:

C:\Users\<non-ASCII username>\...

The app creates repeated staging directories under:

C:\Users\<non-ASCII username>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node\.staging-789504f803e82e2b-*

but never completes the runtime install into the expected final folder:

C:\Users\<non-ASCII username>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node\789504f803e82e2b

The process exits after a few seconds and no Codex Desktop window appears.

Evidence collected

• Microsoft Store package: OpenAI.Codex_26.609.4994.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Codex Desktop/Electron sentry scope showed app version 26.609.41114
• Windows: Windows 11 Pro, version 10.0.26200
• Crashpad dumps are generated under LocalCache\Roaming\Codex\web\Codex\Crashpad\reports
• Extracted strings from the latest Crashpad dump include:

__char_to_wide: Illegal byte
\\?\C:\Users\?????????\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node\.staging-789504f803e82e2b-...
\\?\C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.609.4994.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\cua_node

The ????????? portion corresponds to the non-ASCII Windows username path.

Reproduction pattern

1. Use Windows with a non-ASCII username/profile path, e.g. C:\Users\<Korean username>.
2. Install Codex Desktop from the Microsoft Store.
3. Launch Codex Desktop from the Store/Start menu.
4. Observe that the app starts briefly and exits without showing a window.
5. Check AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node and observe repeated .staging-* directories with no completed runtime folder.

Workaround that confirms the path issue

Launching the same installed Codex.exe with ASCII-only app data/temp paths allows the runtime staging to complete and the app to stay open:

set "LOCALAPPDATA=C:\Users\Public\CodexAsciiLocal"
set "APPDATA=C:\Users\Public\CodexAsciiRoaming"
set "TEMP=C:\Users\Public\CodexAsciiTemp"
set "TMP=C:\Users\Public\CodexAsciiTemp"
start "" "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.609.4994.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\Codex.exe"

With this workaround, the runtime folder is successfully created at:

C:\Users\Public\CodexAsciiLocal\OpenAI\Codex\runtimes\cua_node\789504f803e82e2b

and Codex Desktop remains running.

Things that were ruled out

• Updating the NVIDIA driver did not fix the normal launch path.
• Launching with GPU disabled (--disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing --use-angle=swiftshader) did not fix the normal launch path.
• Removing/closing Parsec virtual display and iCUE/Corsair services did not fix the normal launch path.
• Codex CLI itself works from the same Windows account; the failure appears specific to Codex Desktop runtime staging/install.

Expected behavior

Codex Desktop should correctly handle Windows profile/app data/temp paths containing non-ASCII characters and complete cua_node runtime staging without crashing.