There’s finally some good artificial intelligence news for Windows users, and no, it’s not Microsoft forcing Copilot onto them whether they want it or not. Instead, it’s something developers might actually be excited to install.
The good news is that OpenAI has officially launched the Codex app on Windows, and this isn’t just a port. It’s a proper, native Windows experience built from the ground up with developers in mind.
The Codex app lets you manage multiple projects from a central interface. On Windows, it runs natively using PowerShell inside a dedicated Windows sandbox. You’re not running something designed for macOS and awkwardly shoved into Windows, but a native Windows app. Until now, Windows developers had to watch from the sidelines, but that changes today.
What’s inside the Codex app
All the features that made Codex popular on other platforms are now available in the Windows app. Skills let you discover and extend Codex’s capabilities by connecting it to other apps, Automations allow Codex to work in the background without you having to babysit it, and Work Trees let you run multiple independent tasks within the same project simultaneously.
The Windows version also comes with platform-specific extras. There’s a dedicated WinUI skill in the skill gallery for Windows app developers. If you prefer working in Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can switch both the coding agent and the integrated terminal to run inside WSL.
How to get Codex app for Windows
If you’ve been waiting for ChatGPT’s AI coding companion on Windows, the wait is over. You can download Codex from the Microsoft Store or directly from OpenAI’s website.
After downloading, sign in with your existing ChatGPT subscription or an API key, and you’re good to go and ready to start generating, debugging, and refining code directly on your Windows machine.