Bug: Omi Desktop for Windows crashes on launch after restart attempt with "Cannot find module 'ms'" error

[hugoaap-code]

Summary

After closing Omi to check whether recording would resume, the Windows desktop app showed a startup error instead of reopening normally.

This happened after the earlier blank-screen capture problem reported in #10737.

Related issue

• Related: Bug: Omi Desktop for Windows stopped capturing screen and only recorded dark blank screens for hours without warning #10737

Problem

On launch, Omi shows a JavaScript main-process error and fails with:

Error: Cannot find module 'ms'

This appears during app startup, preventing normal use.

Expected behavior

• Omi should restart normally after being closed
• Restarting the app should be a valid recovery step after capture issues
• The app should not fail on launch because of a missing module dependency

Actual behavior

• Omi was closed to test whether recording would resume after the blank-screen issue
• On relaunch, the app showed a JavaScript error in the main process
• The visible error says Cannot find module 'ms'
• The stack trace points into the packaged Windows app resources

Redacted stack trace detail

The screenshot shows local Windows installation paths. Redacting the personal username, the relevant path pattern is:

C:\Users\<redacted>\AppData\Local\Programs\omi-windows\resources\app.asar\...

Impact

This turns a recording failure into a full app startup failure.

A user who tries to recover from broken capture by restarting the app can end up unable to reopen Omi at all.

Suggested investigation

• Check why the packaged Windows app is missing the ms module at runtime
• Verify whether a partial update, corrupted install, or packaging issue can cause this dependency failure
• Check whether this can be triggered after restarting from a bad capture state
• Add a safer recovery path or clearer remediation message if a required module is missing
• Investigate whether the blank-screen capture issue and this startup crash share the same root cause

Environment

• Omi Desktop
• Windows
• Observed on Monday, July 27, 2026

[tianmind-studio]

I reproduced the startup failure from the packaged Windows artifact: electron-builder pruned ms from the Sentry/debug runtime chain, so app.asar/out/main/index.js failed before startup. #10823 fixes that by declaring ms as a direct runtime dependency and adds a final-artifact probe to both unsigned and signed release paths; the rebuilt ASAR and isolated-profile Windows launch passed, and current CI is green. The fix is still awaiting human release-path review and has not merged yet.

[hugoaap-code]

Additional context for this existing issue:

This same Cannot find module 'ms' startup crash also happens after using the in-app updater flow on Windows:

Settings > About > Restart to install latest update

Observed behavior:

• Click Restart to install latest update
• Omi closes and appears to update/install a new version
• When opening Omi after the update, Windows shows:
  • A JavaScript error occurred in the main process
  • Error: Cannot find module 'ms'

So this issue is not limited to restarting after a capture problem. It can also be triggered immediately after the built-in Windows update flow, which suggests the updater may be installing or handing off to a broken packaged build.