Windows desktop app: packaged app-server exits with 0xC0000135 on launch, likely missing runtime dependency #14364
Description
What version of the Codex App are you using (From "About Codex" dialog)?
Store package: OpenAI.Codex_26.306.996.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
I cannot confirm the in-app About dialog because the app fails on launch, but the bundled app-server reports codex-cli 0.112.0-alpha.3 when copied out of the package and run directly.
What subscription do you have?
ChatGPT Plus
What platform is your computer?
Windows 11 on ARM64 hardware
What issue are you seeing?
The Windows desktop app launches, then its bundled app-server child process exits immediately before handshake. The desktop app never becomes usable.
This appears to be a packaging/runtime dependency problem in the Store app, not a generic CLI crash.
Primary local evidence:
- Installed Store package on this machine:
OpenAI.Codex_26.306.996.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0 - Desktop log repeatedly shows the packaged child process being spawned and then dying with
3221225781/0xC0000135:C:\Users\aabec\AppData\Local\Packages\OpenAI.Codex_2p2nqsd0c76g0\LocalCache\Local\Codex\Logs\2026\03\11\codex-desktop-b6477181-8a95-43b2-bd00-555e717d7e0d-13632-t0-i1-170501-0.log- representative lines:
stdio_transport_spawned executablePath="C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.306.996.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex.exe"App-server connection closed code=3221225781Codex CLI process exited classifiedAsExpected=false code=3221225781
0xC0000135is consistent withSTATUS_DLL_NOT_FOUND.- Import inspection of the packaged
app\resources\codex.exeshows dependency onVCRUNTIME140.dllplus UCRTapi-ms-win-crt-*DLLs. - The Codex package manifest has no
<PackageDependency>entries under<Dependencies>:C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.306.996.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\AppxManifest.xml
- A working OpenAI packaged app on the same machine does declare a framework dependency:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.ChatGPT-Desktop_1.2026.43.0_arm64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\AppxManifest.xml- contains
<PackageDependency Name="Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.1.6" ...>
- The required VC runtime framework packages are installed on the machine, including x64
Microsoft.VCLibs.140.00.UWPDesktop, but the Codex package does not appear to declare/use them for the packaged child process. - Strongest signal: if I copy
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.306.996.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\codex.exeout of the MSIX/AppX package container into a normal directory and run it directly, it works and returnscodex-cli 0.112.0-alpha.3.
That suggests the binary itself is not corrupt. The failure is specific to packaged execution / dependency resolution inside the AppX container.
Possibly related to or superseding #13859, but this report includes the likely root cause rather than only the symptom.
What steps can reproduce the bug?
- Install the Codex Windows app from Microsoft Store on an ARM64 Windows machine.
- Launch the app.
- The GUI starts but the packaged child process
app\resources\codex.exeexits immediately with0xC0000135before initialization completes. - The app never loads normally.
What is the expected behavior?
The packaged app-server should start successfully inside the Store app container and the desktop app should finish loading.
Additional information
Likely root cause:
The MSIX package is missing a required framework/runtime dependency declaration for the bundled x64 child process, or it does not bundle the required runtime DLLs. In practice this looks like a packaging defect in the Windows app.
Requested fix:
- Add the correct framework/runtime dependency declarations for the packaged child process, or bundle the required runtime DLLs.
- Validate the packaged x64 child process on ARM64 Windows specifically.