Windows Desktop Start at Login writes an unquoted executable path to HKCU Run #6473

Client or integration

Other — OpenCodex Desktop (Windows)

Area

Installation or packaging

Summary

OpenCodex Desktop 2.76.0 registers its Windows Start at Login entry under:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

with the executable path unquoted:

C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe --autostart

Because the executable path contains spaces, I expected the registry command to quote the executable path:

"C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe" --autostart

The app did still start correctly on this machine before I corrected the value manually, so this is not a confirmed startup failure in my environment. I am reporting the generated registration because an unquoted executable path containing spaces is ambiguous command-line syntax on Windows and is less robust than the quoted form.

Microsoft's CreateProcess documentation describes the ambiguity of unquoted executable paths containing spaces:
https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/win32/api/processthreadsapi/nf-processthreadsapi-createprocessw

I searched existing issues before filing. The closest related report I found is #696, but that issue concerns the older ocx tray install Run entry exceeding the 260-character limit. This report is specifically about the OpenCodex Desktop Start at Login entry and quoting of the desktop executable path.

Reproduction

1. Install and launch OpenCodex Desktop 2.76.0 on Windows.
2. Leave Start at Login enabled so the desktop app registers its login entry.
3. Inspect the current-user Run key with PowerShell:

(Get-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run").OpenCodex

4. Observe the generated value:

C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe --autostart

5. Win32_StartupCommand shows the same unquoted command:

Get-CimInstance Win32_StartupCommand |
  Where-Object Name -eq "OpenCodex" |
  Select-Object Name,Command

Observed before manual correction:

Name      Command
----      -------
OpenCodex C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe --autostart

6. Manually changing only that Run value to the quoted form works and Windows continues to recognize the startup entry correctly:

Set-ItemProperty `
  "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" `
  -Name "OpenCodex" `
  -Value '"C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe" --autostart'

Verification after the change:

Name      Command
----      -------
OpenCodex "C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe" --autostart

Version

OpenCodex Desktop 2.76.0

Operating system

Windows 11 x64 (exact build was not captured)

Provider and model

Not provider-specific.

Logs or error output

# Before manual correction
C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe --autostart

# Expected / manually corrected value
"C:\Program Files\OpenCodex\opencodex-desktop.exe" --autostart

Screenshots and supporting files

No additional files are required to reproduce this; the registry value and PowerShell commands above capture the observed behavior.

Implementation context

Current main enables Desktop login autostart through tauri-plugin-autostart (desktop/src-tauri/src/first_run.rs) and configures the login-origin argument in desktop/src-tauri/src/lib.rs. desktop/src-tauri/Cargo.toml currently pins tauri-plugin-autostart = 2.5.0.

This may ultimately be behavior in the upstream Tauri autostart plugin, but the observable packaged OpenCodex Desktop registration on Windows is the unquoted Run value above.

Checks

• I searched existing issues and documentation.
• I removed secrets, tokens, account details, request credentials, and personal data.