[Windows] Pet overlay ignores “Reduce motion: Off” when OS animation effects are disabled

Summary

The Windows pet overlay does not honor the Codex per-app Reduce motion: Off setting when Windows Animation effects are disabled. All pet animations are reduced to a single static frame until Windows global animation effects are enabled.

Environment

• Codex Windows app: 26.623.19656.0
• Windows: version 25H2, build 26200.8655, x64
• Native Windows agent
• Codex setting: reduced-motion-preference = "off"

Steps to reproduce

1. In Windows Accessibility > Visual effects, disable Animation effects.
2. In Codex Settings > General > Appearance, set Reduce motion to Off rather than System.
3. Fully quit and restart Codex.
4. Wake a built-in pet.
5. Observe its idle state and drag it horizontally.
6. Repeat with a custom pet containing valid multi-frame idle and running-left/running-right rows.

Expected behavior

The explicit Codex setting Reduce motion: Off should override the Windows system preference for the Codex UI and pet overlay. Idle and directional drag animations should play normally.

Actual behavior

• Idle animation is frozen on one frame.
• Dragging changes to the appropriate directional state, but only a fixed frame is displayed.
• The behavior affects both built-in and custom pets.
• Restarting Codex and recreating the overlay does not help.

Control test / workaround

Enabling Windows Animation effects immediately restores idle and drag animations. This indicates that the pet overlay is still following the OS prefers-reduced-motion value despite the Codex per-app preference being explicitly set to off.

Additional notes

The custom pet atlas was separately validated and its animation previews play correctly, so this is not caused by missing sprite frames or custom pet packaging.