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[Windows App 26.730.8199] System-wide desktop redraw freezes while mouse cursor still moves #37172

Description

@cttsai1985

Codex App version

  • Microsoft Store package: OpenAI.Codex_26.730.8199.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
  • Desktop executable: ChatGPT.exe
  • Executable version reported by Windows: 151.0.7922.71

Platform

Windows 11 x64.

Issue

Codex Desktop can cause the visible Windows desktop to stop repainting:

  • The hardware mouse cursor continues moving normally.
  • Window contents stop updating.
  • Clicking or switching windows can take many seconds or produce no visible response.
  • Explorer, the taskbar, Edge, and other applications can appear frozen at the same time.
  • Ctrl+Alt+Del followed by Cancel can sometimes release the freeze temporarily, but the taskbar may disappear and return only after a delay.
  • The problem can return immediately after Codex Desktop restarts.
  • It occurs even when Computer Use is disabled and no Computer Use session is active.
  • It does not correlate with high CPU, memory, or disk utilization.

Windows recorded repeated Application Hang Event ID 1002 entries for ChatGPT.exe. The reports were MoAppHang events and mapped to the same fault bucket. Report IDs and hashes are intentionally omitted.

During a live freeze, Windows process APIs could still report the relevant applications as alive or responding even though the visible desktop was not repainting.

Isolation already performed

  • Computer Use was explicitly disabled.
  • No competing GUI controller was running.
  • There was no repeated taskkill.exe or WMI process-enumeration storm at the live snapshot.
  • Restarting only Codex's isolated graphics child process did not recover desktop redraw.
  • Stopping backend agents is not an acceptable workaround and should not be required to keep Windows responsive.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Launch Codex Desktop on Windows.
  2. Start one or more local agent threads performing normal shell and filesystem work.
  3. Continue using other desktop applications.
  4. Eventually, or sometimes immediately after Codex Desktop restarts, the visible desktop stops repainting while the mouse cursor still moves.
  5. Ctrl+Alt+Del followed by Cancel may restore redraw briefly, after which the taskbar can disappear or remain delayed.

Computer Use is not required to reproduce the problem.

Expected behavior

Codex Desktop and local agent loops must not block Windows desktop composition, input routing, Explorer, the taskbar, Alt+Tab, or unrelated applications.

A renderer or native-window stall should be isolated and recovered without stopping backend agents or requiring a reboot.

Requested investigation

Please investigate the Windows native-window, renderer, input, and desktop-composition interaction in the current Codex Desktop build. A supported app-only safe mode or renderer recovery mechanism would also be valuable.

Related issues

This case differs from the PowerShell-process-storm report because it reproduced without a taskkill/WMI storm and with Computer Use disabled.

Privacy note

Raw WER archives and Codex logs are not attached because they can contain local paths, prompts, account identifiers, and session data. Sanitized diagnostics can be provided if maintainers offer a private channel.

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