Windows desktop app crashes when restoring an in-app browser tab (Chromium GPU process crash)

Summary

On Windows, opening one particular Codex chat reproducibly closes the entire desktop app. The chat restores an existing Browser Use / in-app browser tab for an authenticated third-party site. No user action is needed: selecting the chat is sufficient.

Expected behavior

The browser tab should restore or fail independently; the Codex desktop app should remain usable.

Actual behavior

The desktop app exits. Windows does not create a normal Application Error/WER record for these new crashes. Microsoft Store Repair is required to reopen the app.

The crash persists after:

• clearing Codex Browser data
• restarting the app
• updating the NVIDIA driver
• disabling Browser Use in settings
• launching Codex with --disable-gpu (Chromium falls back to D3D11 WARP, but the same crash occurs)

Relevant Codex logs

Immediately after the in-app browser webview becomes ready, the final records are:

Recoverable Chromium child process gone exitCode=101457950 processType=GPU reason=crashed serviceName=GPU
Recoverable Chromium child process gone exitCode=18 processType=GPU reason=launch-failed serviceName=GPU

Then the app exits.

Environment

• Codex Windows desktop app package: 26.721.4979.0 (app logs report 26.721.41059)
• Windows 11 Pro, build 26200, x64
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
• NVIDIA driver 610.74 / 32.0.16.1074 (same issue also occurred before the update)
• Reproduces in an affected chat that restores a Browser Use tab for an authenticated third-party hosting administration site

Notes

• No corresponding NVIDIA/Display/dxgkrnl error appears in the Windows System event log during reproduction.
• The problem is deterministic for that chat and appears to be retained browser/session state. Once the app has recovered, no live in-app browser tabs are listed to close; the tab is recreated during chat resume.
• Sanitized logs can be provided on request.