[Windows Desktop 26.803.10989.0] Intermittent whole-window UI freezes with normal system resources

What version of the Codex App are you using?

OpenAI.Codex 26.803.10989.0 from the Microsoft Store (installed/updated on 2026-08-12).

What subscription do you have?

Paid ChatGPT plan with additional Codex credits enabled.

What platform is your computer?

• Windows 11 Pro x64, build 26100
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, driver 32.0.15.8157
• Display: 2560×1440 at 100 Hz
• Native Windows local-project workflow (not WSL)

What issue are you seeing?

Codex Desktop intermittently freezes as a whole for several seconds. During an incident, every button within the Codex window is non-interactive; then the UI recovers on its own. Other Windows applications remain responsive.

This happens after normal code-assistant usage (project prompts, edits, tests and occasional document/image inputs), but also briefly with no active large task. It is not limited to switching threads.

Sanitized observations

• Windows Error Reporting previously recorded both AppHangTransient for ChatGPT.exe and RADAR_PRE_LEAK_64.
• GPU/driver status is healthy; no display-driver resets were found.
• While the UI was stalled, the Codex GPU process used under 1% GPU 3D activity.
• After restarting Codex, within roughly 10 minutes, renderer private memory reached approximately 1.7 GB and 1.0 GB for two renderer processes; total Codex private memory was approximately 3.7 GB.
• On a later sample, the same two renderers were approximately 1.93 GB and 1.05 GB. Windows still reported the processes as responding, despite the in-app buttons being temporarily unclickable.
• System-wide CPU, RAM, and disk usage were not saturated. Other applications remained normal.
• The local Codex browser profile/cache was about 150 MB and did not show abnormal cache growth.
• The issue persisted after Codex was updated/reinstalled and after old Codex conversations were archived.

Steps to reproduce

The freeze is intermittent, but a typical sequence is:

1. Open Codex Desktop on Windows.
2. Work in a local code project, including normal prompts and occasional shell/test activity.
3. Continue using the UI for several turns.
4. At unpredictable times, click any Codex UI control.
5. The whole Codex window stops accepting clicks for several seconds, then recovers without user action.

Expected behavior

Codex should remain interactive while renderer/background work proceeds. A renderer or session-processing spike must not block all window controls.

Related reports

This appears related to the Windows Desktop performance/freezing reports, including #20214, #29543, #29821, #29949, #33368, and #33786. This report adds a newer package version (26.803.10989.0) and evidence that the issue persists despite a fresh update, normal GPU state, modest local cache size, and archived old Codex threads.

Privacy

No raw conversations, prompts, local paths, screenshots, or logs are attached because they may contain private project data. I can provide further sanitized counters if maintainers request them.

Start by reproducing the intermittent freeze in Codex Desktop on Windows while monitoring the renderer processes and the reported private-memory growth. No source file or test is identified in the report; done means identifying the blocking work and preventing it from making the whole window temporarily non-interactive.