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Codex Issues / #40893

Codex App crashes on startup on Windows 11

Open 💬 3 comments Opened Aug 26, 2026 by kuzyabela02-hue
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Unknown — the app crashes before I can open the “About Codex” dialog.

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT Plus

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11, 64-bit

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex App previously worked normally on this computer, but now it crashes every time I try to start it and does not load.
I have already tried the following:

  • Ended all Codex processes in Task Manager.
  • Restarted Windows.
  • Used the Windows “Repair” option for the app.
  • Used the Windows “Reset” option for the app.
  • Tried running the app as administrator.
  • Renamed %USERPROFILE%\.codex\config.toml to config_backup.toml so that Codex could create a clean configuration file.

The problem continues after all these steps. I have not reinstalled the app yet because I do not want to lose my local projects, chat history, settings, or completed work.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

  1. Start Windows 11.
  2. Launch the Codex App from the Windows Start menu.
  3. The app begins to open but crashes before it finishes loading.
  4. Launch the app again.
  5. The same problem occurs every time, including after restarting Windows.

What is the expected behavior?

The Codex App should start normally and allow me to access my existing local projects and chats without crashing.

Additional information

The issue started suddenly on August 26, 2026. The app had previously worked normally on the same computer.

Please advise how I can collect the relevant Windows app logs for diagnosis and whether reinstalling the app is safe without losing my local projects, chats, settings, and completed work. I can provide screenshots and additional system information if required.

View original on GitHub ↗

3 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 1 day ago

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

  • #40401

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cpl366 · 1 day ago

Before reinstalling, I would preserve the local Codex data and collect a few read-only checks first. The fact that the app worked before Aug 26 and now crashes before About opens makes this look more like the current Windows regression family than damaged projects.

Please do not delete .codex / local project folders yet.

Could you post the output of these commands (redact any tokens/keys):

where.exe codex
[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("CODEX_CLI_PATH","User")
powershell.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command "Write-Output NO_PROFILE_OK"
powershell.exe -NoLogo -NonInteractive -Command "Write-Output PROFILE_OK"
Get-AppxPackage OpenAI.Codex | Select Name,Version,Status,InstallLocation

If where codex finds an npm install, also run the native executable with --version rather than the codex.cmd wrapper. On another Windows 11 recovery, the working native path ended in:

@openai\codex\node_modules\@openai\codex-win32-x64\vendor\x86_64-pc-windows-msvc\bin\codex.exe

and using a current native CLI (0.149.1 in that case) via CODEX_CLI_PATH restored Desktop startup.

One more check: if the native CLI runs, try codex mcp list. If it fails before listing servers, post the exact config parse error. We saw a separate case where an incompatible service_tier = "priority" in the active config blocked initialization even though the UI surfaced a generic Windows setup/startup failure.

Reinstall may be safe depending on where your state lives, but given your concern about local history I would first identify the actual active data/config paths and back them up rather than assuming Reset/Reinstall is harmless.

kuzyabela02-hue · 1 day ago

Thank you. I ran the requested checks. Here are the results:

where.exe codex
INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).

[Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("CODEX_CLI_PATH","User")
(no output — the variable is not set)

powershell.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command "Write-Output NO_PROFILE_OK"
NO_PROFILE_OK

powershell.exe -NoLogo -NonInteractive -Command "Write-Output PROFILE_OK"
PROFILE_OK

Get-AppxPackage OpenAI.Codex | Select Name,Version,Status,InstallLocation

Name: OpenAI.Codex
Version: 26.820.7780.0
Status: Ok
InstallLocation: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.820.7780.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

Since where.exe codex did not find a Codex CLI or npm installation, I have not been able to run the native executable or codex mcp list.

The desktop app still crashes on every startup.