cannot finish Windows setup to continue

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• #32149

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<img width="1067" height="824" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cda41da9-e664-4bbc-aeeb-4d26883d8ac7" /> I have the exact same issue i cant even skip this--

I have the same issue too

Fixed! 👍

The issue was caused by the config.toml file inside the .codex folder.

First, completely close the chatgpt app using task manager. then go to the folder where Codex is installed, open the .codex folder, and find the config.toml file.

Rename it to something like: config.toml.old

Then open the chatgpt app again. It will automatically create a new config.toml file, and everything should work.

This is the safest option. Do not delete the entire .codex folder, as you could lose your backups or other saved data.

Thank you so much. It works now

On Sat, 11 Jul 2026, 21:06 Tayyab, @.***> wrote:

tayyab910629 left a comment (openai/codex#32248) <https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/32248#issuecomment-4948215469> Fixed! 👍 The issue was caused by the config.toml file inside the .codex folder. First, completely close the chatgpt app using task manager. then go to the folder where Codex is installed, open the .codex folder, and find the config.toml file. Rename it to something like: config.toml.old Then open the chatgpt app again. It will automatically create a new config.toml file, and everything should work. This is the safest option. Do not delete the entire .codex folder, as you could lose your backups or other saved data. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/32248?email_source=notifications&email_token=AKBIWEHGS7BSRGGML2XEBRT5EJ6ZPA5CNFSNUABFM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQXTIOJUHAZDCNJUGY42M4TFMFZW63VHMNXW23LFNZ2KKZLWMVXHJLDGN5XXIZLSL5RWY2LDNM#issuecomment-4948215469>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AKBIWEHKDQWOYWIQ362XDBD5EJ6ZPAVCNFSNUABFKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHM4TMNJUGE2TMNBZHNEXG43VMU5TIOBVHAYDMMJQGA42C5QC> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.***>

I've discovered another critical root cause for the "Finish Windows setup" hang (where the UAC prompt never triggers) that is related to authentication rather than Windows privileges or system features.

The Underlying Issue

If your user session has expired or the OAuth refresh token has been revoked, the desktop app fails to fetch the cloud configuration bundle (cloudConfigBundle) during startup:

failed to load configuration: Your access token could not be refreshed because your refresh token was revoked. Please log out and sign in again.

This causes the backend windowsSandbox/setupStart call to fail with a 401 Unauthorized / Auth error. Instead of displaying a prompt to log out and log in again, the Desktop UI incorrectly routes this error to the "Finish Windows setup" gate, making it appear as a permissions/sandbox setup failure.

The Fix / Workaround

To break the loop and force the app to show the login screen:

1. Close the ChatGPT/Codex Desktop application completely.
2. Open File Explorer and navigate to your user profile directory: %USERPROFILE%\.codex (usually C:\Users\<username>\.codex).
3. Locate the file named auth.json.
4. Rename auth.json to auth.json.bak (or delete it).
5. Relaunch the ChatGPT/Codex app.

The app will now detect that no login session exists, skip the sandboxing gate, and successfully route you to the Sign In screen. Once you log back in, a fresh OAuth session will be established, and the app will open normally.

Fixed! 👍 The issue was caused by the config.toml file inside the .codex folder. First, completely close the chatgpt app using task manager. then go to the folder where Codex is installed, open the .codex folder, and find the config.toml file. Rename it to something like: config.toml.old Then open the chatgpt app again. It will automatically create a new config.toml file, and everything should work. This is the safest option. Do not delete the entire .codex folder, as you could lose your backups or other saved data.

Thank u u save my life

Just had that happen to me. It was a malformed config as others have mentioned.
Possible fix would be to try to reparse it. Workaround could include forcing a new config while backing up the old one (obv done by the app automatically)

I was able to fix this issue with a permissions workaround, with help from ChatGPT.

My symptoms

• ChatGPT Desktop was installed from the Microsoft Store.
• When I clicked the Windows setup / permission step, the UAC modal eventually appeared and I could approve it.
• However, after approving the UAC prompt, ChatGPT still showed:

Windows setup didn’t finish

• Running ChatGPT as Administrator did not fix it.
• Renaming config.toml did not fix it.
• The usual non-Store folders like %LOCALAPPDATA%\ChatGPT, %APPDATA%\ChatGPT, and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ChatGPT did not exist on my system.

What fixed it

I closed ChatGPT completely, then opened PowerShell as Administrator and ran this:

taskkill /IM ChatGPT.exe /F 2>$null
taskkill /IM codex.exe /F 2>$null

$me = "$env:USERDOMAIN\$env:USERNAME"
$codex = Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE ".codex"
$sandbox = Join-Path $codex ".sandbox"
$marker = Join-Path $sandbox "setup_marker.json"

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $codex | Out-Null

icacls $codex /inheritance:e
icacls $codex /grant "${me}:(OI)(CI)F" /T /C

if (Test-Path $marker) {
    icacls $marker /grant "${me}:F"
    Write-Host "setup_marker.json permission fixed"
} else {
    Write-Host "setup_marker.json not found yet; retry setup once in ChatGPT, then run this command again if it still fails."
}

In my case the output included something like:
Successfully processed 10184 files; Failed processing 0 files
processed file: C:\Users\USERNAME\.codex\.sandbox\setup_marker.json
Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files
setup_marker.json permission fixed

After that, I opened ChatGPT normally, not as Administrator, approved the Windows permission prompt again, and the setup completed successfully. The error disappeared.

So in my case, the issue seems to have been caused by incorrect permissions on the .codex folder and/or the .codex\.sandbox\setup_marker.json file.