openai / openai/codex

Windows Computer Use exposes only browser surface; `sky` service is not configured

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#44,186 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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app bug computer-use windows-os
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

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

26.903.61454

What subscription do you have?

base

What platform is your computer?

Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.26200.0 x64

What issue are you seeing?

Computer Use cannot access any Windows desktop application.

The Computer Use settings page shows that “Any App” is enabled. The computer-use@openai-bundled plugin is installed and enabled. However, a prompt such as:

@Computer usa LU4

does not discover or control the already-running LU4 application.

The automation runtime reports only the in-app browser and no native applications:

{
  "apps": [],
  "browsers": [
    {
      "name": "Codex In-app Browser",
      "type": "iab"
    }
  ]
}

### What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: no-active-thread-01a086eb-17b8-7501-8c2c-3705da3fc788

### What is the expected behavior?

```md
With “Any App” enabled and a desktop application visible on the active Windows desktop, Computer Use should discover the app, request permission if necessary, and provide a controllable application/window target.

The Windows app-control service (`sky`) should be registered and available to the Computer Use runtime.

### Additional information

- Reinstalled and restarted Codex/ChatGPT desktop app; the issue persists.
- Restarted the Computer Use JavaScript session; the issue persists.
- No local `requirements.toml` policy was present to disable Computer Use.
- The local plugin configuration reports both `computer-use@openai-bundled` and `unified-computer-use@openai-bundled` as enabled.
- The active CUA runtime appears browser-only: its plugin configuration contains `CUA_REPL_ENABLED_SURFACES="browser"`. This may explain why the browser works while native Windows applications do not.
- The issue is reproducible with a fresh task.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Computer Use settings and runtime configuration, checking the enabled computer-use plugins and the reported CUA_REPL_ENABLED_SURFACES="browser" value. Trace how the Windows app-control service, sky, is registered and exposed to the runtime. Done means a visible native Windows application appears as a controllable target while the in-app browser continues to work.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
desktop, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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