Windows: agent PowerShell commands flash console windows and steal focus #48498

Environment

• Codex on Windows after a recent update, using PowerShell for agent-run shell commands.
• Native Windows sandbox is configured as elevated.
• sandbox_private_desktop is not explicitly disabled in the user config.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start a Codex session on Windows, minimize the main terminal, and work in another application.
2. Ask the agent to run a harmless PowerShell command such as Write-Output 'Codex terminal check'.
3. Observe a terminal window briefly appear over the active application and take keyboard focus. This happens repeatedly as the agent runs commands.
4. A prompt that does not invoke any command does not produce the popup. The flash can appear immediately after submitting a prompt when the agent's first action is a shell command.

Expected behavior

Non-interactive agent commands should run without creating visible console windows or taking focus from the user's current application, even when the main terminal is minimized.

Actual behavior and impact

Console windows flash above other windows and steal focus. This interrupts typing and makes it difficult to use other applications while Codex works. Please give native Windows and PowerShell workflows closer attention in testing. At this point these disruptions make paying for Codex hard to justify: the tool is causing problems instead of helping solve them.

Related reports about visible Windows consoles: #23892, #48059, and #46949. This report adds the command-triggered reproduction and the observation that focus is stolen even when the main terminal is minimized.

Separate status line reminder

Please also revisit the inability to display the current Git branch and PR number in the status line on affected setups. Related open reports: #23968 (branch) and #23473 (PR number).