Windows Desktop: elevated/admin Codex breaks normal image/file UI interactions with non-elevated apps

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

Codex Desktop package observed locally:

OpenAI.Codex 26.623.5546.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 x64

What issue are you seeing?

When Codex Desktop is launched in a truly elevated/admin session, the tool shell correctly runs with a high-integrity token, but parts of the Desktop UI become difficult or impossible to interact with from normal, non-elevated Windows apps.

The practical symptom I hit is with image/file interactions in chats:

• Codex is launched elevated so admin-required commands can run unattended during longer agent/goal-mode work.
• The Codex tool shell reports admin rights and High Mandatory Level.
• After that, normal-privilege apps such as a browser, screenshot tool, or Explorer cannot interact with Codex UI the same way they can when Codex is launched normally.
• In particular, image hover/attachment interactions in chats stop working reliably while Codex is elevated.

This creates an awkward tradeoff:

• launching Codex normally keeps image/chat UI interactions working, but admin commands later get stuck on UAC or fail;
• launching Codex elevated lets admin commands work, but breaks ordinary desktop-to-Codex UI interactions such as image hover/attachment behavior.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Launch Codex Desktop through an elevated/admin path that preserves elevation into the app-server/tool-shell process.
2. Confirm the tool shell is elevated. For example:

$id = [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()
$p = [Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal]$id
[pscustomobject]@{
  IsAdmin = $p.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)
  Integrity = ((whoami /groups | Select-String 'Mandatory Label').Line -replace '^\s+','')
}

Observed:

IsAdmin: True
Integrity: Mandatory Label\High Mandatory Level

1. Open or continue a Codex chat.
2. From a normal, non-elevated app such as a browser, Explorer, or screenshot tool, try to use the same image/file hover or attachment interaction that works when Codex is launched normally.
3. Observe that the interaction no longer works reliably while Codex is elevated.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should offer a supported way to handle this split safely.

Ideally, users should be able to:

• keep the agent/tool execution path elevated when they intentionally launch Codex as admin, while
• keeping the Desktop UI/attachment/chat interaction layer usable with normal-privilege Windows apps.

If Windows UIPI/UAC isolation makes that impossible for the current architecture, Codex should document or surface this limitation clearly and provide an official supported workflow, such as:

• a split medium-integrity UI plus elevated helper/service for privileged commands,
• a clear "elevated mode" warning explaining drag/drop, hover, and attachment limitations,
• or an official launcher/workflow for admin-capable sessions that does not break ordinary UI interactions.

Actual behavior

Running Codex elevated fixes admin command execution, but causes normal desktop UI interactions with Codex chats/images/files to stop working reliably.

The user has to choose between:

• normal Codex for chat/image UI interactions, or
• elevated Codex for admin-capable longer-running work.

That makes elevated/admin goal-mode workflows hard to use when the same thread also needs screenshots or image/file interactions from ordinary Windows apps.

Additional information

This is related to, but distinct from:

• https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/25296

That issue tracks cases where Codex Desktop is launched as admin but the spawned shell still runs at medium integrity. In this case, elevation is successfully preserved into the shell/tool path, but the elevated Desktop app then runs into Windows desktop interaction limitations with normal-privilege apps.

I understand this may be caused by Windows UIPI/UAC isolation rather than a simple Codex UI bug. The request is for Codex to provide an official supported workflow or clear UX/documentation for this mode, because users who need admin-capable goal-mode sessions can otherwise lose normal image/file interaction behavior in chats.