Codex Desktop Windows native sandbox setup fails, WSL works; unelevated fallback also fails

Summary

Codex / ChatGPT Desktop on Windows gets stuck during Windows native sandbox setup.

The app UI shows:

• 正在完成 Windows 设置
• ChatGPT 正在创建在你的计算机上运行所需的沙盒。这可能需要几分钟
• Windows 设置未完成
• 重试 Windows 设置

Retrying does not complete setup.

Current workaround

Switching Agent Environment from Windows Native to WSL works. This suggests the issue is specific to Windows native sandbox setup/initialization rather than the project itself.

Attempted workaround that did not fix it

Setting the Windows sandbox fallback to unelevated did not resolve the setup loop.

Example attempted config:

[windows]
sandbox = "unelevated"
sandbox_private_desktop = false

Environment details / clues

• Windows native sandbox setup fails.
• WSL Agent Environment works.
• unelevated fallback still fails.
• Windows user profile path contains non-ASCII characters.

Diagnostics

Running in elevated PowerShell:

systeminfo | findstr /i "Virtualization"

Output includes:

Virtualization-based security: Status: Running
Base Virtualization Support

Running:

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Containers-DisposableClientVM,VirtualMachinePlatform,Microsoft-Hyper-V-All

returns a PowerShell parameter binding error because FeatureName expects a string, not an array.

Running:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Containers-DisposableClientVM,VirtualMachinePlatform,Microsoft-Hyper-V-All -All

returns:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature : 功能名称 Containers-DisposableClientVM 未知。

Expected behavior

The Windows native setup flow should either complete successfully, fall back cleanly, or show a precise diagnostic explaining which prerequisite failed.

Actual behavior

The Desktop app remains stuck at the Windows setup retry screen for Windows Native. WSL works as a workaround.

Notes

This may be related to existing Windows Desktop sandbox setup loop reports, but this case is notable because both Windows Native and the unelevated fallback fail, while WSL works.