Windows: Computer Use and browser extension unavailable when Codex is installed outside the C: drive

Not only then. Installed on drive C also don't have this features. Also Windows 10, region EU (Poland).

It was working in the first update on June 16th, but 3 hours later, after second update from 16th, stopped working and be visible.

<img width="862" height="430" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/0760516f-4450-420d-ac87-c5d094eacfee" />

<img width="850" height="221" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/8092c6b3-ee93-40db-9ca8-81c3e4a57927" />

I tried many things. My final attempt was changing the Microsoft Store app install location under Settings > System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Where new content is saved — specifically “New apps will save to” — from drive D: back to drive C:.

Before that, I had tried the following:

1. Changing the Windows region.

1. Repairing / restoring the openai-bundled plugin marketplace configuration.

In other words, making sure Codex could discover the official built-in plugins from the local bundled marketplace.

1. Confirming that the local bundled plugin cache existed.

At that time, the goal was to make sure Codex could find those directories.

1. Enabling the relevant plugins in config.toml.

As for why I decided to change the install location from drive D: back to drive C:, I did not really understand what Codex itself said, so I will provide the original text directly. My native language is Chinese, so the following part was translated:

At that time, it was not that “the plugins were not recognized at all.” Rather, Codex could recognize the bundled plugins / plugin metadata, but the built-in resources of the Microsoft Store/MSIX version of Codex were located inside a protected installation package directory, for example: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_...\app\resources Codex cannot directly use this directory as a normal plugin directory. It needs to copy or extract the bundled marketplace / plugins into the user directory, for example: C:\Users\Administrator\.codex\.tmp\bundled-marketplaces\openai-bundled C:\Users\Administrator\.codex\plugins\cache\openai-bundled\... If this copy/extraction step fails, or if the cache under .codex is incomplete, the settings page will show what appeared in your screenshot: Computer Use plugins unavailable In-app browser plugin unavailable So, more accurately, the conclusion is: the plugins were declared / recognized, but the bundled plugin resources inside the Store package were not successfully materialized into Codex’s own user cache directory. As a result, Browser and Computer Use were considered unavailable.

However, I’m also not sure how long I’ll be able to use it normally. OpenAI’s software stability on Windows is far worse than on macOS :(

Adding a controlled follow-up from another Windows x64 system.

Environment

• Windows 11 x64, OS build reported as 10.0.26200.2
• Microsoft Store package before the latest update: OpenAI.Codex_26.707.9981.0
• Package after the latest update: OpenAI.Codex_26.707.12708.0
• Current install location: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.707.12708.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

Result of moving the Store app

While Codex was installed on drive D:, Computer Use and browser control repeatedly became unavailable, including native-pipe/bootstrap failures after app updates.

I then used the Windows Apps settings to move the Store app to drive C:, restarted Windows, reinstalled/reinitialized the bundled Computer Use/Browser/Chrome plugins, and enabled browser connection permission. After that:

• the official Computer Use client bootstrap succeeded;
• sky.list_apps() returned connected: true;
• Computer Use successfully controlled Windows apps;
• the Chrome extension backend connected successfully after Chrome was launched.

The useful control result is that, after the next Store update from 26.707.9981.0 to 26.707.12708.0, Computer Use still worked from the C: installation. I verified both the official bootstrap and a real calculator operation.

Important limitation

Moving to C: was not a universal fix:

• the in-app Browser still terminates the Codex desktop app shortly after a real page is displayed;
• the latest update exposed a separate bundled-marketplace/cache reconciliation problem, tracked in #30270;
• the plugin settings UI temporarily disagreed with the actual backend state.

So this is evidence that the Store package volume affects native Computer Use/browser materialization or helper-path resolution, but it should not be interpreted as “moving to C: fixes every Browser/Computer Use problem.” The move was also followed by plugin reinitialization, so the experiment shows a strong correlation rather than isolated proof of a single hard-coded path.

Please include secondary-volume installation and Windows' supported Store-app relocation path in update/install testing.