[Windows][26.810.4967.0] System-wide mouse stutter; hidden avatar overlay and cursor polling may contribute

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

• Desktop app/product version reported by the running app: 26.810.41047
• Windows MSIX package: OpenAI.Codex_26.810.4967.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Embedded Chromium: 151.0.7922.137

What subscription do you have?

Not included in the diagnostic capture.

What platform is your computer?

• Windows 11, build 10.0.26200, x64
• Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (24 logical processors)
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU
• 32 GB RAM

What issue are you seeing?

When the ChatGPT/Codex Windows desktop app is open—especially while a Codex task is active—mouse movement across Windows becomes jerky and less predictable. Fully quitting Codex improves mouse behavior immediately.

This initially appeared to coincide with the Computer History announcement, but Computer History is macOS-only and off by default. The local evidence instead points to a Windows desktop-app input/composition regression.

Read-only diagnostics on the affected machine found:

• The Electron main process averaged about 142% of one CPU core over a 12-second sample, with the primary renderer averaging about 25% and the GPU process about 30% CPU.
• Aggregate GPU 3D utilization was low, and Windows DPC/interrupt time was normal, so this was not conventional GPU saturation or a mouse-driver interrupt storm.
• Codex maintains a second hidden Chromium window whose appearance is logged as avatarOverlay with rendererWindowVisible=false.
• The hidden avatar-overlay renderer still receives duplicate task/reasoning activity updates while invisible.
• The installed desktop bundle contains an avatar/native-composition pointer synchronization loop scheduled every 32 ms. It reads screen.getCursorScreenPoint(), evaluates pointer/button state, and sends synthetic mouseMove events into overlay surfaces.
• The overlay composition window disables Chromium background throttling.
• The bundle contains an avatarOverlayCpuOptimizations feature gate whose local fallback/default is false; the active server-side value could not be confirmed.
• The Computer Use plugin is installed and enabled, and its native pipe is initialized at startup, but no Computer Use action/helper process was active and no mouse-control requests appeared in the current logs.

The overlay/pointer-sync path is a possible cause or contributor, not proven. In particular, related report #38546 says the desktop pet was disabled, so the underlying regression may be broader than the visible pet and could involve the always-prewarmed avatar renderer, native composition, or another Electron foreground/input path.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Fully exit the ChatGPT/Codex desktop app, including the tray/background process.
2. Confirm mouse movement is smooth in Windows and other applications.
3. Launch Codex Desktop normally.
4. Start or resume a Codex task.
5. Move the pointer across the desktop, File Explorer, Settings, and other ordinary applications.
6. Observe jerky/stuttering pointer movement.
7. Fully quit Codex again.
8. Observe that pointer behavior improves immediately.

Useful isolation tests:

1. In Settings → Pets, choose Tuck Away Pet, then fully restart the desktop app.
2. If the issue persists, disable both Computer Use plugin toggles and restart.
3. Compare CPU and pointer behavior with an active desktop task versus Codex CLI performing comparable work.

What is the expected behavior?

Running an active Codex desktop task should not alter, intercept, or degrade system-wide mouse movement or Windows desktop responsiveness.

Hidden/prewarmed overlay renderers should not continuously perform expensive cursor polling, native composition, or duplicate activity processing when they are not visible or needed.

Additional information

Feedback ID for OpenAI correlation:

01a00408-042a-7db2-a7fe-d7b774bfd7e6

Related reports:

• #38546 — system-wide mouse stutter on Windows while the desktop app runs
• #38710 — same 26.810.4967.0 package, active-thread trigger, system-wide pointer/composition degradation

Suggested maintainer checks:

• Confirm whether avatarOverlayCpuOptimizations was enabled for this account/session.
• Confirm whether the 32 ms pointer synchronization timer and native composition coordinator remain active while the avatar overlay renderer is hidden or the pet is tucked away.
• Check whether duplicate activity delivery to the invisible avatar renderer is expected.
• Compare Windows builds before and after 26.810.4967.0 for changes to Electron/Chromium input routing, DirectComposition, transparent always-on-top surfaces, and Computer Use native-pipe initialization.
• Consider suspending/destroying the hidden overlay renderer and cursor polling when the pet/overlay is inactive.

Reproduce the issue with the Windows package version 26.810.4967.0, then inspect the hidden avatarOverlay renderer, the 32 ms pointer-synchronization loop, and the native composition coordinator while the pet is tucked away. Compare CPU and pointer behavior with the overlay and Computer Use toggles disabled; done means active tasks no longer degrade system-wide mouse movement and inactive overlays stop unnecessary polling or duplicate updates.