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Codex Desktop Windows sandbox helper fails on Windows 11 Home Chinese. #31086

Description

@minyantao210

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

26.623.101652

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT plus

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Home, Chinese edition

What issue are you seeing?

When Codex tries to use apply_patch or otherwise access an existing file through the Windows sandbox, a Windows dialog appears for:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.623.13972.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe

The dialog says in Chinese:

找不到指定的模块

Codex then reports:

windows sandbox failed: orchestrator_helper_launch_canceled
ShellExecuteExW failed to launch setup helper: 1223

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: 019f2b1c-1dbb-7a62-9402-ae7f144079cb

What is the expected behavior?

No response

Additional information

Reproduction:

  1. Open Codex Desktop on this project.
  2. Ask Codex to use apply_patch to create a small file.
  3. A Windows error dialog appears for codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe.
  4. Creating a new file sometimes returns Success, but deleting or reading/modifying an existing file fails.
  5. Example failure:
    apply_patch verification failed: Failed to read ....codex_sandbox_probe.txt:
    fs sandbox helper failed with status exit code: 1:
    windows sandbox failed: orchestrator_helper_launch_canceled:
    ShellExecuteExW failed to launch setup helper: 1223

What I tried:

  • Repair Codex app
  • Reset Codex app
  • Uninstall Codex
  • Reboot
  • Reinstall Codex
  • Clean uninstall/reboot/reinstall after ending Codex-related processes
  • Enabled Windows virtualization features:
    • Virtual Machine Platform enabled
    • WSL enabled
    • CPU virtualization enabled in Task Manager

None of these fixed the issue.

Diagnostics:

  • where.exe codex returns:
    C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.623.13972.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex
    C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.623.13972.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex.exe

  • Get-Command codex shows:
    Source/Path:
    C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.623.13972.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex.exe
    Version: 0.0.0.0

  • codex --version fails with:
    Access denied / 拒绝访问

  • codex doctor --summary --ascii also fails with:
    Access denied / 拒绝访问

  • The helper files do exist inside the Desktop package resources directory:
    codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe
    codex-command-runner.exe

  • The standalone path does not exist on my machine:
    C:\Users<user>.codex\packages\standalone\current\codex-resources
    Test-Path codex-windows-sandbox-setup.exe => False
    Test-Path codex-command-runner.exe => False

Related issue:
This looks very similar to:
#28457

Difference:
That issue is about Codex CLI standalone. My case is Codex Desktop / WindowsApps package. The helper exists inside the WindowsApps package resources directory, but launching it from the sandbox still fails with the Windows dialog “找不到指定的模块” and Codex error “ShellExecuteExW failed to launch setup helper: 1223”.

Impact:
Codex cannot safely edit files through apply_patch. I have to avoid using apply_patch because it triggers the sandbox helper error and may partially succeed only when creating files, while failing on reading/deleting/modifying existing files.

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    appIssues related to the Codex desktop appbugSomething isn't workingsandboxIssues related to permissions or sandboxingwindows-osIssues related to Codex on Windows systems

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