full-codex-uninstall

Clean Windows uninstaller for Codex CLI + Codex Router — the uninstaller OpenAI never shipped.

Preserves skills/ + agents/, removes everything else: binaries, junctions, Scheduled Tasks autostart, PATH entries, router payload, logs/sessions/auth.

Why

• Discussion #34373 — uninstall answered for Linux only; Windows replies (what about windows, remove CODEX-CLI on Windows via powershell?) left unanswered.
• Issue #28575 — How do I even uninstall this? No uninstall guide exists.
• Issue #15343 — no clean Windows uninstall reverting sandbox changes; closed as not planned.

Like the old Windows 11 Microsoft bloatware pattern: deep hooks into the system (User PATH, directory junctions, Scheduled Tasks that relaunch every minute + at logon, background node + tray processes, ports 4200–4214) with no matching removal path. This repo documents the journey and ships the missing removal tool.

Use

# preview (recommended first)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Uninstall-CodexWindows.ps1 -WhatIf

# standard: remove CLI + Router, keep skills/agents
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Uninstall-CodexWindows.ps1

# only one side
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Uninstall-CodexWindows.ps1 -CliOnly
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Uninstall-CodexWindows.ps1 -RouterOnly

# nuclear: also delete skills/ + agents/
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File Uninstall-CodexWindows.ps1 -FullWipe

What it removes

Area	Path / name
CLI junction	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\OpenAI\Codex\bin (junction → .codex\packages\standalone\current\bin, removed with rmdir so target is never followed)
User PATH	that bin entry from HKCU:\Environment
CLI payload	%USERPROFILE%\.codex\packages\standalone, app-server-daemon, version.json
Router autostart	Scheduled Tasks \Codex Router (wscript start-codex-router-hidden.vbs, logon + every 1 min, restart 999×) and \Codex Router Tray (Codex Router.exe --tray-only, logon)
Router procs	node start.mjs, tray exe, hidden wscript
Router payload	%LOCALAPPDATA%\codex-router, %USERPROFILE%\.codex\codex-router (ports 4200–4214 freed)
State	everything under %USERPROFILE%\.codex except skills/ + agents/

Verify manually: Get-Command codex should fail, no Codex* scheduled tasks, ports free, .codex contains only skills agents.

Journey docs

• docs/EVIDENCE.md — the three pages, what the installer does, before/after on a real machine (paths redacted to %VAR% form).
• docs/VIDEO.md — video script + how the video was built (slides + Edge-TTS VO + ffmpeg).
• video/full-codex-uninstall.mp4 — dramatic walkthrough (copy in release assets when too large for git).

Safety

• Run -WhatIf first. Kills only router-related processes. Junctions removed with rmdir, never recursive-followed. No secrets ever committed (see .gitignore).