Windows Desktop: Computer Use fails with CreateProcessWithLogonW 267 from SMB UNC workspace

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

26.901.4073.0

What subscription do you have?

ChatGPT subscription

What platform is your computer?

Windows (Codex Desktop, Windows-native agent)

What issue are you seeing?

Computer Use / the in-app browser cannot initialize in a task whose workspace root is a normal SMB UNC path such as:

\\server\share\project

The in-app browser can already be open on the requested page, but the Computer Use Node runtime exits before it can attach to the tab. The first call fails before user JavaScript runs:

node_repl kernel exited unexpectedly

node_repl diagnostics: {
  "kernel_status": "exited(code=1)",
  "kernel_stderr_tail": "windows sandbox failed: CreateProcessWithLogonW failed: 267",
  "reason": "stdout_eof",
  "stream_error": null
}

Resetting the Node kernel and retrying does not recover it; the retry reports:

trusted Node process exited unexpectedly; kernel reset, rerun your request

This appears to be a process-current-directory problem. A normal shell tool call with the UNC path as its workdir fails with the same Win32 error 267. The same read-only shell command succeeds when launched from a local working directory such as C:\ while targeting the UNC path explicitly. Computer Use has no caller-visible way to apply that workaround, so it remains completely unavailable for the task.

Observed component versions:

• Codex Desktop package: OpenAI.Codex_26.901.4073.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Codex CLI process: codex-command-runner-0.153.1
• Bundled Computer Use plugin: 26.901.31953
• Sandbox mode: workspace-write

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. On Windows, add or open a Codex Desktop project whose workspace root is an SMB UNC path, for example \\server\share\project.
2. Start a task using the Windows-native agent and workspace-write sandbox.
3. Open any page in the in-app browser.
4. Invoke Computer Use with the smallest supported initialization call, for example:

   let state = await cua.getState();
   

5. Observe that the Node runtime exits before returning browser or UI state, with CreateProcessWithLogonW failed: 267.
6. Reset the Computer Use JavaScript session and retry.
7. Observe the same startup failure.

Control:

• Launching a shell command with the UNC path itself as the process working directory reproduces error 267.
• Launching the shell from C:\ and passing the UNC target explicitly succeeds.

What is the expected behavior?

Computer Use should initialize and control the in-app browser from an SMB UNC-backed task.

The Node/Computer Use runtime should use a valid local Windows working directory for process creation while preserving the task's UNC workspace as an accessible target. If UNC workspaces are unsupported, Codex should fail fast with a specific actionable message before presenting Computer Use as available.

Additional information

Impact: this blocks any authenticated browser/UI investigation from UNC-hosted projects, even when the requested tab is already open and visible in Codex.

Related but not exact duplicates:

• #19599 covers sandboxed shell startup on Windows mapped/UNC workspaces.
• #24101 covers Browser/Computer Use startup failures on WSL UNC paths.
• #26304 covers a general Windows Computer Use Node startup failure with a different setup-refresh error.

This report specifically reproduces the failure on a standard SMB UNC workspace and isolates CreateProcessWithLogonW failed: 267 to the inherited process working directory.

Start from the Windows process-launch path used by the shell and Computer Use Node runtime, reproducing the failure with a normal SMB UNC workspace and CreateProcessWithLogonW error 267. Compare it with launching from C:\ while targeting the UNC path. Done means Computer Use initializes for UNC workspaces or fails fast with a specific actionable message.