Codex lists WSL as mandatory requirement on W11

What version of the VS Code extension are you using?

v0.4.39

What subscription do you have?

Plus

Which IDE are you using?

VS Code

What platform is your computer?

Win11 25H2 ARM64

What issue are you seeing?

Agent mode requires WSL
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with Ubuntu enables Codex to run in a sandboxed environment with better data protections and fewer approval requests. Install WSL with wsl --install -d Ubuntu, turn on 'Run in WSL' in settings, then restart your computer. Learn more

<img width="598" height="680" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/aa455e34-4101-4718-9f5e-acb532734283" />

<img width="418" height="284" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7515dc4b-a7f0-4a38-8584-58afc7bd0819" />

Personally I consider this as a bug as I am able to do everything using PowerShell commands, including Read, Write, and there is even a native Windows version of Node.js https://nodejs.org/en/download for running the codex CLI.

Looks like an artificially degraded functionality to waste more RAM and SSD lifespan as possible from OpenAI, especially considering the amount of RAM needed to run even the smallest WSL VM on a 16GB RAM Surface Pro 11 or 12inch version.

WSL should be an optional requirement on W11, so must be docker for such CLI's/Extensions. And it is not mandatory to allow anyone to use any CLI with a LLM-based agent.

You should definitely reconsider Warning tooltip text and artificial blocking of Agent mode in the VS Code extension if it is proven already being fully operational with no WSL available at all.

Bash and other basic tools are even a part of the official MS' Git for Windows bundle.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Start a new conversation, try switching to Agent mode.

What is the expected behavior?

Warning about limited functionality due to the lack of functionality if Git is installed with no tools or Node.js not available. And advising to install WSL to enable a hassle-free Unix environment.
Switching to Agent mode is also available without limitations, being free to use the tools available on Windows host.

Additional information

For now looks really like a hardware sabotage to me, forcing to use non-native translation of hardware IO through a custom hypervisor build by MS for ARM64 Windows.
If I need Linux on a small RAM-sized machine, I'll find a way to run it natively, rather just for using the Codex' extension. I don't mind chatting in terminal if needed, but it really shouldn't be about forcing people over to run WSL just to hide a meaningless tooltip.