Windows Store Codex app fails to start for Windows usernames containing non-ASCII characters.

[fosJoddie]

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

26.304.1528.0

What subscription do you have?

Business

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

First start of Codex fails with error dialog (full copy below)

From what I can figure, it's getting confused by the non ascii first letter of my username: ø being garbled into �.
You can thank Windows default user folder naming scheme for this (it takes your first name from the MS account)

[Window Title]
Error

[Main Instruction]
A JavaScript error occurred in the main process

[Content]
Uncaught Exception:
Error: EPERM: operation not permitted, mkdir 'C:\Users\�rer.codex\sqlite'
at mkdirSync (node:fs:1349:26)
at t.mkdirSync (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:17243)
at gb (C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.304.1528.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\app.asar.vite\build\main.js:49:1090)
at Object. (C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\OpenAI.Codex_26.304.1528.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0\app\resources\app.asar.vite\build\main.js:326:23989)
at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1769:14)
at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1902:10)
at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1488:32)
at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1307:12)
at c._load (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:17999)
at node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:139583

[OK]

What steps can reproduce the bug?

As far as I am able to gather:

1. Have a windows account with a username that causes the user folder to have or start with a non ascii letter like 'æøå`
2. Install Codex from Microsoft Store
3. Attempt to start application

What is the expected behavior?

Normal first startup of the Codex app

Additional information

Musings, please do not take seriously:

This takes me back to 2001, when even attempting to use non ascii characters inside comments of your scripts was dangerous. A time when most build tools would famously fail on my computer because my ignorant self made a username with non-ascii characters. /home/?rer/ Never heard of the place!

[fosJoddie]

Following the workaround from https://community.openai.com/t/the-codex-app-is-now-on-windows/1375704/5 by defining a custom path for environment variable CODEX_HOME works.

However, when starting the app, clicking log in causes it to just "hang" on waiting to sign in (no browser window opens)

I worked around this by populating my ASCII safe codex home folder with my .codex folder from my user profile folder. (the one from codex-cli)

Then, starting the codex app works, but it want sto open a project, and shows the chose project folder dialog, which defaults to the desktop folder, causing yet another error message about path not found. However you can bypass this by just hitting ok and selecting the folder in the file prompt.

Conclusion: needs support for non-ascii folder paths.

[fosJoddie]

Potential dupes of this: #13673 , #13575 ,

[rafaellop]

@fosJoddie Thanks for sharing this, but this workaround should probably come with a warning. It may help on a fresh setup, but it is not safe for everyone.

If someone already uses Codex CLI or the VS Code extension with an existing .codex, copying that state into a separate ASCII only folder can create a second active Codex home. That can mean split config, missing history, or confusion about which state is current across tools that are expected to share the same local state. Open Windows issues also suggest this is really a broader non-ASCII path handling bug in the desktop app, not something users should have to solve by duplicating their Codex state.

[fosJoddie]

good point, don’t follow this workaround unless you understand the implications.

Affected users are better to wait for the fix overall.

[AdrianNO1]

I have the same issue. The fix with the CODEX_HOME environment variable solved it for me.

[monobjorn]

I have this issue too. I thought this would be fixed quickly by an army of AI agents. But I guess we are not there yet...

[fosJoddie]

@monobjorn I expected the same.

This is either some bigger underlying issue or nobody has picked up the bug yet.
It's been about a week, and there's now 1000 newer issues registered. It must be difficult keeping up with all that.