codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Windows Codex Desktop: Chrome plugin and Browser Use setup hang; plugin uninstall fails with os error 5

Summary

On Windows Codex Desktop, the Chrome plugin and shared browser automation bridge are unstable. The Chrome plugin can sometimes open a basic HTTPS page and read the title, but it is very slow and unreliable; direct browser-client setup calls hang until timeout. The Codex plugin UI also cannot uninstall the bundled Chrome plugin.

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop package: OpenAI.Codex_26.506.2212.0_x64
• Plugin: chrome@openai-bundled 0.1.7
• Chrome extension ID: hehggadaopoacecdllhhajmbjkdcmajg
• Chrome extension version: 1.1.4_0
• Chrome plugin config: [plugins."chrome@openai-bundled"] enabled = true
• Current browser backends exposed in the turn metadata: ["chrome", "iab"]

Reproduction

1. Restart Codex Desktop.
2. Enable the bundled Chrome plugin in Codex plugins settings.
3. Ask Codex:

   @chrome open https://example.com and read the page title

4. Observe that it can sometimes succeed, but one run took about 1m50s for a trivial page title read.
5. Ask Codex to inspect Chrome bookmarks:

   @chrome can you view my bookmarks directory?

6. It reports that the Chrome plugin/tool is unavailable for that task.
7. In Codex plugin settings, attempt to uninstall the Chrome plugin.
8. The UI shows a toast in Chinese: 插件卸载失败 (Plugin uninstall failed).

Direct diagnostics

From the agent-side Node REPL / browser-client path:

• Importing the Chrome plugin browser-client.mjs succeeds quickly (~47ms).
• Calling setupAtlasRuntime({ globals }) for the Chrome plugin hangs until tool timeout (120s).
• Calling setupAtlasRuntime({ globals, backend: "iab" }) for the in-app browser backend also hangs until timeout (120s), so the issue may be in the shared browser-use/native pipe bridge, not only the Chrome extension.
• The current turn metadata includes:

  {
    "x-codex-browser-use-available-backends": ["chrome", "iab"]
  }

Local health checks that pass

The plugin-provided diagnostic scripts report that the local pieces are present:

• Chrome is installed and running.
• The Codex Chrome Extension is installed and enabled.
• The native host manifest exists and points to the bundled Chrome plugin latest extension host.
• The expected extension origin is allowed.

Relevant log lines

The Codex Desktop logs contain repeated plugin uninstall failures:

failed to uninstall plugin: failed to remove existing plugin cache entry: 拒绝访问。 (os error 5)

They also contain browser/IPC instability:

IpcRouter Socket error: write EPIPE
app_server_connection.state_changed ... next=disconnected

There are also bundled plugin cache install/update warnings on Windows:

bundled_plugins_marketplace_install_failed
errorCategory=plugin_cache_windows_file_lock
errorMessage="failed to install plugin: failed to back up plugin cache entry: 拒绝访问。 (os error 5)"

Expected behavior

• @chrome setup should initialize reliably or fail fast with a clear error.
• Browser automation setup should not hang until the outer 120s tool timeout.
• The Chrome plugin should reliably handle simple page tasks such as opening https://example.com and reading the title.
• The plugin UI should either uninstall the plugin or clearly explain that bundled plugins cannot be uninstalled.
• If Chrome bookmarks / chrome:// internal pages are intentionally unsupported, the model/plugin should report that limitation directly rather than implying the Chrome plugin/tool is unavailable.

Actual behavior

• Simple page-title reading can work, but is very slow and unreliable.
• Direct setup calls for both Chrome and IAB browser backends hang until timeout.
• The Chrome plugin UI uninstall flow fails with a generic toast.
• Logs point to Windows file-lock/access-denied failures and IPC disconnection.

Related issues checked

This appears related to other Windows browser/app-server issues, but this report includes the Chrome plugin and plugin uninstall failure combination:

• #21530
• #20846
• #20661
• #20206
• #20048
• #19693