AI computer use on Windows in the background: Codex, Claude, Copilot, agent-desktop, Cua Driver and Anode compared
As of 6 November 2026, by their own docs, Codex's Windows computer use "runs on the active desktop" and takes over the pointer and foreground, Claude's hides your other windows while it works (its background mode is macOS-only), and GitHub Copilot's app works "in the background where possible", bringing the target app into focus "only when needed" on Windows. Anode instead runs the agent's apps in a second Windows session with its own screen, pointer and keyboard focus: in our run on 22 October 2026 (Anode 0.11.3, Windows 11 Pro), 13 Windows-MCP tool calls inside that session left the PC's own pointer in one place and its foreground window unchanged across 4,762 samples over 240 seconds, with nobody using the PC. agent-desktop 1.2.0 and Cua Driver 0.40.1 also leave your pointer alone by default, using UI Automation and window messages inside your own session; an open report against agent-desktop 1.1.0 (#567, 5 November) says its actions still bring the target window to the front, and Cua Driver needs the app to accept background input. Anode needs Windows 10 or 11 Pro, Enterprise or Education on x64. Method, sources and data are below.
We make Anode. We ran none of the other tools for this page: everything about them comes from their own documentation, release notes, source and public issues, read on 6 November 2026 and linked below. The user reports we cite are dated and name the reporter's version, and any of them may since be fixed. Our own numbers come from recorded Anode runs whose data is public. If we got something wrong, open an issue and we will correct it.
The short answer
- To keep using the PC while an agent clicks and types in Windows apps (Windows Pro, Enterprise or Education on x64): have the agent use Anode's tools, which start and drive apps in Anode's seat, a second Windows session for your account. Claude Code, Codex and other local MCP clients can call them (Anode's README). By design the seat never takes your pointer, focus or windows. We have measured it with nobody at the PC (a third-party tool's 13 calls inside the seat on 22 October, and Anode's pointer guard on 2 October), not yet with someone typing at the same time (what we measured).
- If you use Codex's own computer use on Windows: OpenAI's docs say it "can't operate in the background while you keep using the same Windows session", and suggest running the ChatGPT desktop app in a Windows virtual machine, or a second device.
- If you use Claude's computer use on Windows: expect it to hide your other windows while it works and restore them when it finishes (a setting). Working in the background while you keep using the computer is documented for macOS only.
- If you use GitHub Copilot's app: its docs say it works in the background where possible and, on Windows, brings the target app into focus only when needed, then restores your previous window. It is a public preview.
- If you are on Windows Home or ARM64: Anode doesn't support Home and isn't validated on ARM64. agent-desktop (Windows 10 1809 or later, x64 or ARM64) and Cua Driver (x64 and ARM64 builds) work in your own session without moving your pointer by default, for apps that accept UI Automation or window-message input, as their docs describe.
- If the agent must work in windows or signed-in apps you already have open: use a tool that works in your own session, such as agent-desktop or Cua Driver. Anode's seat can't reach your open windows.
- If you need a security boundary: none of these is one. Use a virtual machine or Windows Sandbox. Anode's seat runs as you, with your files, saved sign-ins and network (what the seat is not isolated from).
Side by side
From each tool's own docs, read 6 November 2026, except the Anode row's measured results. "Not stated" means its docs don't say.
| Option | Where the agent acts | Your pointer and keyboard focus | Your windows | Limits and advice in its own docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Codex computer use (ChatGPT desktop app) | "On Windows, Computer Use runs on the active desktop." | "expect ChatGPT to move the pointer, type, and take over the foreground while the task runs." | "keep the target app visible on the active desktop while the task runs." | Can't run in the background while you use the same session; keep the device unlocked for unattended tasks; run the app in a Windows virtual machine, or use "a secondary device, a VM, or stop the task before using that desktop yourself." Background and locked use are for macOS. |
| Claude computer use (Claude Desktop 4.23118.0) | "computer use runs on your actual desktop with access to whatever you approve." | It can "control your screen, and work directly on your machine the way you would" (macOS and Windows alike). The mode where Claude "doesn't take over your pointer or keyboard" is documented for macOS 15 or later only. | "Claude hides your other windows while it works" unless running in the background (macOS only); "hidden windows are restored unless you turn this setting off." | Research preview (the help centre says beta) on Pro, Max and Ultra plans, not Team or Enterprise. Per-app approval with view-only, click-only and full-control tiers. |
| GitHub Copilot app 1.1.35 (public preview) | Your apps, "in the background where possible", through the accessibility tree or screenshots. | "On Windows, it brings the target application into focus only when needed, then restores the previously active window." | Not stated. | "Changes in timing or window state can produce different results." |
| agent-desktop 1.2.0 (Apache-2.0) | "The interactive desktop session of the signed-in user", through UI Automation. | "Headless by default. Ref actions use the accessibility API without moving the pointer or taking focus." Typing
"needs --headed" (keystrokes into the foreground window); use set-value headless. Open report #567
(1.1.0): headless actions brought the target window to the front. |
A window behind another is drivable; "A minimized one is not". | "a locked desktop, and another user's session are not supported." Its Windows page says the behaviour "was not run for these docs." |
| Cua Driver 0.40.1 (MIT) | Your interactive session ("not Session 0"), through UI Automation and "Window messages to the target HWND". | "does not raise the window, move the real pointer, or switch the frontmost app." An optional foreground fallback brings the window forward briefly (its notes measured about 40 ms on Calculator). | Returns background_unavailable when the target is covered at the point or the app drops that kind of
event (for example Chromium page mouse events and key combinations). |
Its agent sessions "still share one screen, keyboard, and focus, and native input is admitted one action at a time." |
| Anode 0.11.4 (MIT; we make it) | A second Windows session (a child session) for your account, the seat. | The seat has its own. Measured (0.11.3, nobody at the PC): your pointer never moved and your foreground window never changed during 13 Windows-MCP tool calls in the seat. | The seat's windows never appear on your monitors, and yours aren't in the seat. It only drives apps started in the seat. | Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise or Education on x64; not Home. Not a sandbox. One seat per machine. A new seat may need your Windows password (PIN or Windows Hello sign-ins). |
What people have reported on Windows
Public issues read on 6 November 2026, all open unless marked. They are users' reports, not the vendors' statements, and each names the reporter's version.
- Claude: computer use "minimizes all non-allowlisted windows before screenshots and never restores them", breaking the emoji and clipboard panel and the lock screen (#102334, 15 October, Windows 11 Home, Desktop 2.26454.2.0; Anthropic's docs say hidden windows are restored when Claude finishes). The taskbar stops responding after a session releases screen control (#92066, 4 September, Windows 11 Pro, Desktop 1.34493.1.0). The computer-use side panel stays docked and other windows stay hidden until the whole turn ends (#96825, 24 September, Windows 11 Home, Desktop 2.7032.0.0, filed as a feature request). Computer use breaks the Microsoft Pinyin input method's candidate window (#97444, 26 September, Windows 11, Desktop 2.7032.0.0).
- Codex: the system cursor stays invisible after a computer-use task (#57714, 28 October, app 26.1021, Windows 11 25H2), or when a Steam or game window gets focus (#49175, 29 September, app 26.924.22138, Windows build 26100).
- agent-desktop: on 1.1.0, click, set-value and check "activated the target window", which "interrupts simultaneous use of the PC" (#567, 5 November, Windows 11 Pro). The reporter traces it to UI Automation's AutoSetFocus default and includes a patch in the issue; we found no pull request for it, and the 1.2.0 release notes list no Windows focus change.
- Tools that type with SendInput in your session share your focus by nature. One new one, dsh-computer-use-windows, says so plainly: its tools "inject input into whatever window currently has focus", and it advises running "when the desktop is idle" or checking focus just before typing (README, v1.0.0, 3 November).
Several of these reporters are on Windows 11 Home, which Anode doesn't support. For apps an agent starts in the seat, while the viewer stays hidden or view-only, Anode doesn't hide, minimize or cover your windows, move your pointer, take your focus or type into your windows. That is its design; none of these cases was re-run on Anode.
Why a second session, not a hidden window
A Windows session has one input queue, one foreground window, one keyboard focus and one cursor, however many monitors it has (Anode's architecture). Cua Driver's own docs say the same of its agent sessions: they "still share one screen, keyboard, and focus". Tools that work inside your session, such as agent-desktop and Cua Driver, avoid your pointer app by app, by sending UI Automation calls or window messages that the app has to accept. Anode moves the agent's apps into a child session, a loopback Remote Desktop session tied to yours (documented by Microsoft), where its input and screen capture run and the agent's programs start, so it doesn't depend on each app accepting background input. The exceptions on your desktop are Anode's viewer when you take control; Steam, which Anode starts minimized on your desktop when a game in the seat needs it; and, without HidHide, the virtual gamepad, which a game on your desktop can read. The cost is that the agent works only in apps it starts there, not in the windows you already have open.
What we measured on Anode
| Run | Setup | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 22 October 2026, Anode 0.11.3 | Windows 11 Pro, build 26200. Windows-MCP 0.8.8 started inside the seat and driven by a script (7 calls) and by Claude Code (6 calls). A sampler on the PC's own desktop read the pointer and the foreground window every 50 ms for 240 s. Nobody used the PC (no input for over 9 hours). | All 13 calls returned without an error, and the typed text arrived in the test window inside the seat. The PC's own pointer had 1 position in 4,762 samples and its foreground window changed 0 times (data, the full run). |
| 2 October 2026, the 0.11.1 candidate | Windows 11 Pro, build 26200, the viewer hidden, with the real pointer resting inside the viewer's rectangle, where Windows' Remote Desktop control would otherwise copy the seat's pointer moves onto yours. | Anode's pointer guard suppressed all 7 attempted pointer updates and forwarded none; the watcher saw no matching jumps of the real pointer (release record). |
Neither run used 0.11.4, the current release. Between 0.11.3 and 0.11.4 the source fixed sign-in messages, lease timing and a few command errors, and made scrolls and page keys wait for the screen to settle (the 0.11.4 release record); the code that decides where input, capture and program starts run, and the pointer guard, did not change (the diff). Both runs were on Windows 11; we have no recorded run on Windows 10.
What this page doesn't show
- Someone working at the PC during a seat task. Our run had nobody at the PC. Your typing should stay in your session, because the seat has its own input queue, but we haven't measured it.
- Windows 10, Windows Home, or a locked PC. Not tested, and Home isn't supported.
- Codex's screenshot timeouts. Many Windows users, most of them on Windows 10, report Codex computer-use screenshots failing with "FrameArrived timed out" (for example #49383, 29 September). Anode captures the seat's screen another way, but it has its own capture failures (troubleshooting), and we haven't tried it on the affected machines. We make no claim about it.
- Running agent-desktop, or another computer-use tool, inside the seat. Not tried. A tool runs in whichever session starts it, and an agent's own shell runs in yours.
- Other callers. GitHub Copilot's app hasn't been tried with Anode. The Codex desktop app, now part of the ChatGPT desktop app, runs Anode's MCP server (Anode's troubleshooting mentions it), but neither measured run used it.
Where Anode doesn't help
- Windows Home, ARM64, macOS and Linux. The release targets x64 Pro, Enterprise and Education, or Windows Server with a Remote Desktop host; ARM64 is not validated.
- Your open windows. The agent can't use the windows or signed-in apps you already have open, and apps that run once per user, such as Office, won't open in the seat while they are open on your desktop.
- Your documents can still reach the seat. Apps that restore their last session (Windows 11 Notepad, browsers on your usual profile, many editors) reopen your documents and unsaved tabs in the seat, where the agent can read them.
- Not a sandbox. The seat signs in as you: an agent there can read and delete anything you can.
- Elevated apps and UAC. The seat runs unelevated, and input an elevated window refuses may be dropped without an error.
- Sign-in. With a PIN or Windows Hello sign-in, a new seat may need your Windows password, through Sign in… in the viewer header or the tray menu; a seat that signed in that way asks again when you press Reconnect in the viewer after a detach. An agent can't do either.
- The viewer. If you open Anode's viewer and press Take control, your input goes to the seat and the seat's pointer moves yours; that is the point of the button.
- One seat per machine, shared by agents in turn. Startup programs run a second time in the seat.
- Setup and managed PCs. Setup needs one administrator prompt, turns on the Remote Desktop host and can restart Remote Desktop Services, which disconnects any Remote Desktop session to this PC; a policy that keeps Remote Desktop off or blocks unsigned programs stops it.
- Known issues in 0.11.4: a Chrome window's first observation can omit the page; invoking Windows'
Open File security dialog reports success without running anything; the
anode typecommand has no pace option.
Sources: Anode 0.11.4's README, SECURITY.md, USAGE.md (limits), TROUBLESHOOTING.md and the 0.11.4 release record.
When to use something else
Codex's computer use in a virtual machine
When you want Codex's own computer use and a real boundary, run the ChatGPT desktop app inside a Windows virtual machine, as OpenAI's docs suggest, so it "takes over the VM instead of your main desktop". Its docs ask you to keep the target app visible and the device unlocked while a task runs.
Claude on macOS, or Claude on Windows while you watch
On macOS 15 or later, Claude's computer use can work in background windows while you keep using the computer. On Windows, it is a simple choice if you already use Claude Desktop on a Pro, Max or Ultra plan and want to watch a short task: computer use is a setting there, and its per-app approvals decide what it may touch.
GitHub Copilot's app
If you already work in Copilot's app and an occasional focus switch is acceptable, its background-first design may be enough. It is a public preview, and its docs warn that changes in timing or window state can change results.
agent-desktop
Choose it on Windows Home or ARM64; on any edition when the agent has to work in windows or signed-in apps you
already have open; or when you want one CLI across macOS, Windows and Linux (about 17,800 GitHub stars on 6
November). On Windows it stays off your pointer for apps whose controls UI Automation can reach, with
set-value instead of typing; keystrokes need --headed. Watch
#567 for the focus fix.
Cua Driver
Choose it on Home or ARM64, or on any edition when the agent has to work in windows you already have open, as
long as the apps accept background window messages; or when you already use Cua's agent stack. It says when an action can't be done in the background (background_unavailable) rather than taking
your focus, unless the agent opts into its brief foreground fallback, which its docs say is needed for games, canvas
apps such as Blender and apps that poll focus.
A virtual machine or Windows Sandbox
When the agent's work must not reach your files, accounts or network. Anode's seat isolates your attention, not your data.
Also seen
- Windows' own agent workspace runs agents "in a separate Windows session" with their own desktop, under a separate agent account; Microsoft's page (its editor's note, 5 December 2025) calls it a private preview for Windows Insiders, used by Copilot Actions. Its MCP containment runs MCP servers in that separate session and account; the page doesn't say whether they get a screen or input. A second session for agents is not unique to Anode.
- Microsoft Copilot Studio's computer use, for agents built in Copilot Studio, runs on a Windows machine set up for it: a Microsoft-hosted browser or a Cloud PC pool (both previews, powered by Windows 365 for Agents), or a machine you register, for which Microsoft's docs say to "dedicate a machine to computer use to avoid interruptions" (Configure where computer use runs).
- BgDesk also runs an agent in a child session; it is compared with Anode, Windows-MCP and others in Windows desktop automation for AI agents, which also covers hidden-desktop tools such as Ghost and lowlevel-computer-use-mcp.
- agentfenster works on a hidden second Win32 desktop inside your session, per its PyPI page. Its PyPI package 0.1.0 holds no product code: the server ships in a closed-source, paid Windows program that its site calls "currently in development".
- Windows-MCP users can run it inside Anode's seat: Windows-MCP in the background.
Method
- The searches this page answers, run on 6 November 2026: "AI agent computer use on Windows in the background while I keep using my PC", "agent-desktop Windows computer use without stealing focus background", "Codex computer use Windows takes over mouse focus hidden desktop", "Claude computer use Windows minimizes my windows separate session" and "run computer use agent in a hidden Windows session MCP". Directories, news write-ups and issue mirrors ranked; the search summaries named Cua Driver as the background option and said Codex's Windows computer use runs on the active desktop. None of the results was ours (results).
- The other tools: read on 6 November 2026 from their docs, release pages, manifests (licences) and source, and their issues through GitHub's API. Nothing was installed or run.
- Anode: the two runs above, from their published data and Anode's release record; nothing was re-run for this page. The 0.11.3 to 0.11.4 source diff was read on 6 November 2026.
Sources
Read on 6 November 2026.
- Codex: Computer Use (moved from
developers.openai.com/codex/app/computer-use; "Windows foreground use"), changelog (26.527, 29 May 2026: Windows computer use); issues #49175, #57714, #49383. - Claude: Claude Code desktop docs ("Let Claude use your computer"), help centre article, desktop changelog (4.23118.0, 5 November); issues #92066, #96825, #97444, #102334.
- GitHub Copilot app: how-to, concept page, changelog (1 October); release 1.1.35 (4 November).
- agent-desktop: README and release 1.2.0 (5 November; Apache-2.0 in Cargo.toml), Windows platform page (updated 3 November); issue #567.
- Cua Driver: how Cua Driver works (the no-foreground contract and platform table), WINDOWS.md; release cua-driver-rs-v0.40.1 (6 November, marked pre-release by the repository's own convention; MIT in Cargo.toml).
- Microsoft: experimental agentic features (agent workspace), MCP containment, child sessions, Copilot Studio computer use.
- Others: agentfenster-mcp on PyPI (0.1.0) and agentfenster.com/mcp; dsh-computer-use-windows (v1.0.0).
- Anode 0.11.4 (31 October): README, ARCHITECTURE.md, SECURITY.md, USAGE.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, RELEASE-READINESS.md.