Windows computer-use helper freezes Voidtools Everything while reading large UI Automation result lists

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

26.908.4834.0

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Windows 11 Home, 64-bit, build 26200

What issue are you seeing?

When the Codex desktop computer-use helper is running, Voidtools Everything becomes unresponsive after displaying a large result list.

Everything completes indexing, searching, and sorting normally. The results appear briefly, then the application freezes. A mini-dump captured during the freeze shows Everything's main UI thread blocked while servicing a cross-process Windows UI Automation bulk fetch of list-view subitems and their bounding rectangles.

Stopping only codex-computer-use.exe, relaunching Everything, and repeating the same unrestricted search immediately resolves the problem. Everything remains fully responsive with its normal settings and icons restored. This was the only material environmental difference between the failing and successful runs.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

1. Run the Codex desktop app and invoke computer use so codex-computer-use.exe is active.
2. Launch Voidtools Everything.
3. Allow Everything to finish indexing.
4. Enter a common unrestricted search such as "test" and press Enter, or display the unfiltered all-files list.
5. Wait for the large result list to populate.
6. Observe that Everything displays the results briefly and then becomes unresponsive.

Control test:

1. Close the frozen Everything window.
2. Stop only codex-computer-use.exe.
3. Relaunch Everything without changing its settings.
4. Repeat the same unrestricted search.
5. Observe that Everything remains fully responsive.

What is the expected behavior?

Everything should remain responsive while displaying and interacting with a large result list, even when the Codex computer-use helper is active.

The helper should not eagerly enumerate every off-screen item or request geometry for an entire high-cardinality accessibility list in a way that blocks the target application's main UI thread.

Additional information

Environment:

• OpenAI Codex desktop app: 26.908.4834.0
• Windows 11 Home, 64-bit, build 26200
• Voidtools Everything stable: 1.4.1.1032 x64
• Voidtools Everything beta: 1.5.0.1423b x64
• Codex helper: codex-computer-use.exe, bundled in the Codex runtime under the @oai/sky package

Result-count behavior while the helper is running:

• "count:100 test" remains responsive.
• "count:1000 test" remains responsive.
• "count:10000 test" remains responsive but becomes noticeably slower.
• An unrestricted "test" search returns approximately 140,000 results and freezes.

The Everything diagnostic log shows that the unrestricted search completed in about 0.06 seconds and sorting completed in under 0.001 seconds. The freeze occurs during subsequent interface work, not during indexing or searching.

WinDbg classified the captured dump as:

APPLICATION_HANG_BusyHang_cfffffff_win32u.dll!NtUserMessageCall

The blocked UI thread included:

win32u!NtUserMessageCall
user32!SendMessageW
UIAutomationCore!ListViewSubItemProxy::GetSubElementRect
UIAutomationCore!ListViewSubItemProxy::get_BoundingRectangle
UIAutomationCore!UiaNode::GetBoundingRectangleInScreenCoordinates
UIAutomationCore!UiaNode::CrossProcess_BulkFetch
UIAutomationCore!RemoteUiaNodeStub::Incoming_BulkFetch
UIAutomationCore!HandleHookMessage

The problem persisted after rebuilding the Everything database, resetting its settings, reinstalling the stable version, installing the beta version, isolating drives, disabling icons and overlays, changing sorting, and disabling search-as-you-type.

Everything is the only confirmed reproduction case. However, the same mechanism may potentially affect other Windows applications that expose very large tables, file lists, log views, or tree views through UI Automation.

I can provide the mini-dump and verbose diagnostic log privately to OpenAI upon request. I have not attached them publicly because they may contain local filenames, paths, search text, and process information.

Start at codex-computer-use.exe in the @oai/sky package and reproduce with Voidtools Everything using an unrestricted search. Inspect the UI Automation bulk-fetch path described by the dump; done means large result lists remain responsive without eagerly enumerating all off-screen items or requesting their geometry.