New chatGPT (Codex) desktop app opens, then exits on Windows ARM64 Surface

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

• #33393
• #33389
• #33392
• #33385
• #33384

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fix it

I can reproduce this on Windows 11 ARM64 with the same app version, OpenAI.Codex_26.707.9981.0_arm64.

My ProcDump trace shows the process exits with code 0x00000000 rather than crashing.

The desktop log contains:
primary_runtime_update_poll_failed
Failed to download primary runtime manifest (404 Not Found)

The runtime configuration lists windows-x86_64 but no windows-arm64 entry.

I just downloaded the latest version, and the program no longer crashes. The problem is resolved. Thank you!

Possible workaround (worked for me on ARM64)

I wanted to share what finally resolved this for me in case it helps someone else.

Environment

Surface Pro 11 (Snapdragon X Elite)
Windows 11 Insider Beta 26220.8764 (ARM64)
Microsoft Store version of ChatGPT
Existing Codex installation migrated to ChatGPT

Symptoms

Codex worked previously.
After the migration to ChatGPT, the app would either:
display the "What's New"/onboarding screen for a few seconds and exit, or
exit immediately after launch.
Browser ChatGPT worked normally.

During troubleshooting I also noticed Microsoft Store crashing, although I'm not certain whether that was related.

What finally fixed it

A normal uninstall/reinstall was not enough.

The important difference was completely removing all remaining user data.

I manually deleted every remaining OpenAI/Codex folder I could find, including:

%USERPROFILE%\.codex
%USERPROFILE%\.cache
%USERPROFILE%\.agents
%LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI
Any remaining OpenAI/Codex folders under %LOCALAPPDATA%
Any remaining OpenAI package data I could locate

Only after removing all of the above did I reinstall ChatGPT.

The key observation

Every previous reinstall preserved my login and immediately returned to the existing state.

After deleting all remaining folders, ChatGPT behaved like a completely fresh installation:

prompted me to sign in again
displayed the full first-run onboarding
requested Windows integration permissions
completed setup successfully
now launches normally

This makes me suspect that some migration/profile state survives uninstall and can prevent the new ChatGPT desktop app from starting correctly.

I can't say with certainty which folder contained the problematic state, but removing all remaining OpenAI/Codex user data before reinstalling resolved the issue for me.

I’m seeing the same issue on a Microsoft Surface Pro running Windows ARM64.

Package:

• Name: OpenAI.Codex
• Version: 26.727.6591.0
• Architecture: Arm64
• Status: Ok

After updating, ChatGPT Desktop immediately shows:

ChatGPT failed to start.
spawn EINVAL

The application cannot be opened at all. This also appears related to #33583,
which reports the exact same "spawn EINVAL" startup error.

Follow-up: I found a working workaround for my Surface Pro / Windows ARM64 case.

Environment:

• Microsoft Surface Pro, Windows ARM64
• ChatGPT package: OpenAI.Codex 26.727.6591.0 ARM64
• Error: ChatGPT failed to start / spawn EINVAL

The profile-cleanup workaround above did not fix it by itself. A full uninstall/reinstall still produced spawn EINVAL.

What finally worked was making the Desktop app use the official standalone ARM64 Codex CLI:

1. Install the official standalone CLI:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.ps1 | iex"

The installer detected Windows ARM64 and installed codex-cli 0.146.0. I also removed the old npm-managed Codex when prompted to avoid PATH ambiguity.

1. Set CODEX_CLI_PATH for the current user:

$codexExe = "$env:USERPROFILE\.codex\packages\standalone\current\bin\codex.exe"

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
    "CODEX_CLI_PATH",
    $codexExe,
    "User"
)

1. Restart Windows.

After reboot, the ChatGPT/Codex Desktop app launched normally.

Important note about local history:

I had previously renamed C:\Users\<user>\.codex while troubleshooting, so the app initially opened with an empty history. The history was not deleted; it was still in the backup folder. To restore it safely, I closed the Desktop app, preserved the newly installed .codex\packages directory, restored my original .codex folder, and then put the new packages directory back into it. The Desktop app still launched, and all previous Codex history returned.

I did not restore the old %LOCALAPPDATA%\OpenAI or OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0 package-data backups.

So, in my case, the effective workaround was:

• keep the ARM64 Store app,
• install the standalone ARM64 CLI,
• point CODEX_CLI_PATH to it,
• restart Windows,
• then restore only the old .codex user data while preserving the new standalone packages directory.

This looks like the Desktop package's bundled runtime/launcher path is the problem rather than the account or repository data.

fix it

how?