[Windows] Computer Use cannot enumerate or launch desktop apps on one machine

Open 💬 5 comments Opened Aug 11, 2026 by 277644921-star

💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

Environment

Codex App: 26.803.10989.0 (Windows AppX package version)
Computer Use plugin: 26.803.81509
Platform: Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64
Subscription: ChatGPT subscription; exact tier unknown

Issue

Computer Use in the Codex desktop app cannot see or control any desktop apps on this Windows PC. The same account and workflow work normally on other computers.

Observed errors/states:

Importing @oai/sky can fail with: EPERM: operation not permitted, lstat 'C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex'.
On retries where the module loads, list_apps() and list_windows() both return zero items even while WeChat is open.
Launching C:\Program Files\Tencent\Weixin\Weixin.exe or Weixin.exe may fail with: failed to fetch shell:AppsFolder item: 找不到元素。 (0x80070490).

Result: Codex cannot open/control WeChat and cannot send a test message to File Transfer Assistant.

Reproduction

Open the Codex desktop app on the affected Windows PC.
Enable the Computer Use plugin/server and “Any App”, grant permissions, and unlock the session.
Open WeChat manually.
Ask Codex to use Computer Use to send a message to File Transfer Assistant.
Computer Use either fails while loading @oai/sky, returns zero apps/windows, or fails to launch WeChat with error 0x80070490.

The same account and task work normally on other computers.

Expected behavior

Computer Use should enumerate the open desktop windows and interact with WeChat, as it does on the user's other computers.

Troubleshooting already attempted

Unlocked the session and granted all requested permissions.
Enabled “Any App”.
Restarted and retried the Computer Use plugin.
Reinstalled/retried the plugin.
Fully uninstalled and reinstalled the official Codex Windows app; the problem persists.

No raw logs, session ID, or other PII are attached.

View original on GitHub ↗

5 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 17 days ago

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

#37743
#37681
#37029
#37102

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ALiiMiri · 17 days ago

Additional reproduction and isolation from the same affected Windows machine:

Computer Use previously worked on this PC. On July 28, 2026, it successfully ran list_apps(), selected and activated a returned window, captured window state/screenshots, clicked in the target window, and read the accessibility tree.
On August 11, 2026, three independent fresh Codex tasks failed before any target app could be selected or touched.
A plain node_repl call still works, but importing the bundled controller fails immediately with:

EPERM: operation not permitted, lstat 'C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex'

The failure occurs at await import("@oai/sky"), before sky.list_apps() or sky.list_windows().
Resetting the persistent Node kernel, fully restarting Codex, and rebooting Windows did not resolve it.
Explicitly adding the bundled runtime's node_modules directory to the Node REPL search roots also did not resolve the same EPERM.

Current environment:

Codex Windows AppX: 26.803.10989.0
Computer Use plugin: 26.803.81509
Bundled @oai/sky: 0.6.6
Windows 11 Pro x64, version/build 10.0.26200

This latest test isolates the failure to Computer Use runtime/module initialization rather than target-app visibility, approval, or launch behavior. No raw logs, session IDs, usernames, or unredacted personal paths are included.

alejandroalamo · 15 days ago

Confirming this on another Windows 11 x64 machine with the same Codex desktop package version: OpenAI.Codex_26.803.10989.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0.

@oai/sky loads, but the first sky.list_apps() fails before any window can be enumerated with:

EPERM: operation not permitted, lstat 'C:\\Users\\<redacted>\\AppData\\Local\\OpenAI\\Codex'

Observed process setup: the sandbox permits the bundled cua_node runtime bin and node_modules paths, but not the parent AppData\\Local\\OpenAI\\Codex directory that the helper tries to inspect. This points to a sandbox path-allowlist regression rather than a target application or Windows ACL problem.

Already attempted: Codex app Repair, full Windows restart, complete Codex restart, and a fresh Computer Use runtime session. All reproduce the same failure.

Impact: Computer Use cannot inspect or control an already-open Zoho Assist remote-session window, so no target applications are touched. No secrets, screenshots, session IDs, or user data are included.

gridledger-x · 14 days ago

I can confirm the same issue on another Windows system.

Environment:

Codex Desktop: 26.803.10989.0
Computer Use plugin: 26.803.81509
Bundled @oai/sky: 0.6.6

Computer Use still fails before selecting or interacting with any target application:

EPERM: operation not permitted, lstat
'C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\OpenAI\Codex'

The problem reproduces after restarting Windows and Codex, re-enabling Computer Use, and starting fresh tasks. It is not target-app-specific; Calculator, Outlook, and WhatsApp attempts fail before app selection.

Windows ACLs were checked, and no security settings were changed. Please investigate this as the same Windows sandbox/runtime path regression reported here.

gridledger-x · 14 days ago

Update to my earlier report:

After updating Codex, the original Computer Use initialization failure is resolved on this machine.

Current versions:

Codex app: 26.810.4967.0
Computer Use bundle: 26.810.41047
Command runner: 0.148.0-alpha.9

Fresh Node REPL test:

@oai/sky imported successfully.
sky.list_apps() returned 40 apps.
sky.list_windows() returned 4 windows.
The previous EPERM: operation not permitted, lstat ...\\AppData\\Local\\OpenAI\\Codex error did not recur.

This confirms that the latest update fixed the original runtime initialization/enumeration failure for me. I did not open, click, type, or inspect app content during verification.