Windows Desktop launches ChatGPT.exe background processes but no UI/window appears

What version of the Codex App are you using?

26.820.9563.0

Package:

OpenAI.Codex_26.820.9563.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0

What platform is your computer?

Windows x64

What issue are you seeing?

The Codex/ChatGPT Windows Desktop app does not display any window after launch.

When I launch it from the Start menu, desktop shortcut, shell:AppsFolder, or directly from ChatGPT.exe, multiple ChatGPT.exe background processes appear in Task Manager, but:

• No desktop window appears.
• No taskbar item appears.
• No ChatGPT/Codex entry appears in Alt+Tab.
• There is no visible error dialog.
• Windows Event Viewer does not record a new standard Application Error for the launch attempt.

The app therefore appears to start its Chromium/Electron processes successfully but never creates or displays the main UI window.

Process information

The main process starts from:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.820.9563.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\ChatGPT.exe

During one launch I observed the following processes:

ChatGPT.exe
ChatGPT.exe --type=crashpad-handler
ChatGPT.exe --type=gpu-process
ChatGPT.exe --type=utility --utility-sub-type=network.mojom.NetworkService
ChatGPT.exe --type=utility --utility-sub-type=storage.mojom.StorageService

Depending on the launch attempt, Task Manager shows approximately 5–7 ChatGPT/Codex background processes.

The crashpad command line includes:

--user-data-dir=C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Codex\web\Codex

However, that user-data directory was not automatically created or populated by the app.

I manually confirmed that the user account can create and write to that path, so this does not appear to be a basic filesystem permission issue.

Steps to reproduce

1. Install the latest available Codex/ChatGPT Desktop app on Windows.
2. Launch it from the Start menu.
3. Wait several seconds.
4. Check Task Manager.

Actual behavior

Several ChatGPT.exe processes start in the background, including Chromium GPU/network/storage/crashpad processes, but no UI appears.

Expected behavior

The main ChatGPT/Codex Desktop window should appear normally after launch.

Troubleshooting already performed

I have already tried:

• Uninstalling and reinstalling the application.
• Fully removing the MSIX package using PowerShell and reinstalling it.
• Confirming that %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0 was removed before reinstalling.
• Checking the AppX package status.

Current package status:

Name            : OpenAI.Codex
PackageFullName : OpenAI.Codex_26.820.9563.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Version         : 26.820.9563.0
InstallLocation : C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.820.9563.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
Status          : Ok

• Re-registering AppxManifest.xml.

The AppX registration completed successfully with:

result 0x0

• Launching via:

Start-Process "shell:AppsFolder\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App"

• Launching via:

explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0!App

• Temporarily renaming .codex\config.toml so the app starts without the existing Codex configuration.
• Temporarily renaming/removing chat_processes.json.
• Testing with --disable-gpu and --disable-gpu --disable-gpu-compositing.
• Enabling Electron logging and stack dumping:

$env:ELECTRON_ENABLE_LOGGING = "1"
$env:ELECTRON_ENABLE_STACK_DUMPING = "1"
ChatGPT.exe --enable-logging=stderr --v=1

No obvious ERROR, FAILED, or FATAL message was printed.

• Checking whether the window was off-screen using Alt+Tab and Windows window-move shortcuts.

There is no ChatGPT/Codex window listed in Alt+Tab.

• Checking Windows Event Viewer.

No corresponding new standard Application Error was generated during launch attempts.

Additional information

Codex CLI was not originally installed separately on this machine. It was installed later using:

npm install -g @openai/codex

Therefore the original Desktop launch failure does not appear to have been caused by an independently installed Codex CLI.

The Desktop app consistently starts several Chromium/Electron background processes, but the main UI never becomes visible.